Rain Can’t Extinguish Angel Fire : They Score Their 8th Straight Victory With 11-4 Rout of Indians

CLEVELAND —  Despite the rain that fell on Cleveland Monday night, delaying the Angels’ series opener with the Indians twice for a total of 2 hours 31 minutes, the weather has finally broken for the Angels.

After wringing out an 11-4 victory over Cleveland for their eighth straight win, the Angels have stunningly forged their way back to a position that seemed hopelessly beyond their reach two weeks ago.

At 38-38, the Angels are back to .500.

“Finally,” said first baseman Wally Joyner, who hit one of three Angel home runs Monday night. “Now we can worry about staying above it.

“Eight days ago, people were beginning to say, ‘Well, where do you start to throw in the towel? When is it time to forget this year, start playing the kids and get ready for next year?’

“Now we’ve won eight in a row and we’re back in the thick of things. That’s where management and the coaching staff’s experience comes in. They know when and when not to throw in the towel. We made some changes, we picked up Jerry Reuss, we started hitting the ball.

“We had a lot of young players who could have thrown in the towel, but our talent and hard work wouldn’t let us.”

In four days, the Angels have done better than slice their deficit in the American League West in half. On Friday morning, the Angels were 8 1/2 games behind first-place Minnesota. Now, they trail the Twins by just four.

“Where we are now is a hell of a lot better than where we were,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said.

The Angels won this one behind home runs from Joyner, Dick Schofield and Doug DeCinces; behind five decent innings from starting pitcher Don Sutton (5-8), who earned career victory No. 315 before the deluge; and behind four innings of relief from Greg Minton, who earned his fourth save in a week.

The rain began in the top of the fifth inning, with the Angels leading, 4-2, and hoping to make it official.

A bloop RBI double by Schofield had given the Angels their first run in the first inning. Then, in the third, they added three more on a bases-loaded single by George Hendrick and Joyner’s first of four RBIs, this coming on a single to right.

Cleveland countered in the third with two runs. Brett Butler singled and scored on a double to left by Julio Franco. Franco then came home on a single by Joe Carter.

It was still 4-2 when the game entered the bottom of the fifth inning, with the rain increasing and Sutton hurrying to squeeze in three more outs. He retired the side in order, striking out Pat Tabler to beat the downpour by seconds.

Tabler hadn’t returned to the Indian dugout before a violent gust of wind blew a mammoth pocket of water over the left-field roof. Suddenly, a bank of lights was transformed into an industrial-strength sprinkler system, sending the rain gushing and spraying and swirling into the stadium.

Within minutes, the rain was as dense as fog and the first delay had begun. It lasted 1 hour 11 minutes.

It was the shorter one.

Play resumed in the top of the sixth inning, but only briefly. With out out, Gary Pettis tripled into the gap in right-center field. Mark McLemore then stepped to the plate and looked at one pitch.

It would be an hour and 20 minutes before he would see another.

Umpire crew chief Jim McKean called for another delay. By the time the rain subsided and the soggy infield had been repaired with bags of sand, it was 15 minutes to midnight. McKean brought the teams back onto the field--a decision that gave Cleveland a second chance at victory.

For the Indians, a rainout would have been the kinder fate.

After the second delay, Cleveland reliever Ed Vande Berg trudged back to the mound to continue his confrontation with McLemore.

Two pitches later, McLemore sent a single splashing into center field, scoring Pettis with the Angels’ fifth run.

Six more would come in the seventh inning.

Mike Armstrong had replaced Vande Berg by the top of the seventh, where he faced four batters without getting an out. Schofield led off with his seventh home run. DeCinces followed with his ninth. Then came walks to Ruppert Jones and Bob Boone.

And then came Joyner, who hit two home runs in Sunday’s 13-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. The Indians brought on their third reliever, Mark Huismann, to pitch to Joyner and Huismann’s first offering wound up over the center-field fence.

The three-run home run was Joyner’s 18th homer of the season and left him with 64 RBIs, which is one more than Cincinnati’s Eric Davis owns.

Before the seventh inning ended, Brian Downing had added a run-scoring double and the Angels were on their way to the club’s longest winning streak since 1979.

The Angels won 10 straight games that year. The club record for most consecutive victories is 11.

Monday night, the Angels weren’t occupied by such thoughts, however. Being even again, at least for one evening, was an event in itself.

Angel Notes

Tonight, Jack Lazorko makes his first start in 10 days--and possibly his last for a while. Kirk McCaskill also pitches tonight in Palm Springs on rehabilitative assignment and, if all goes well, could return to the Angels’ rotation this weekend. That figures to bump Lazorko, who is 2-3 with a 5.06 earned-run average after seven starts. The Angels will also have to make a roster move when McCaskill comes back. So does this represent a final chance for Lazorko? “That’s no way to look at it,” Lazorko said. “If I worried about what other people thought, I wouldn’t be here. Gene Mauch told me that when I left (for Edmonton) after spring training, he didn’t expect to see me again. But people got injured and things happened. That’s why you can’t worry about things you can’t control.”

Lazorko has yielded at least one home run in each of his starts, surrendering a total of 12 in 48 innings. Despite the numbers, Lazorko defends his performance. “I’ve had five good starts,” he said. “I pitched into the eighth or ninth inning five straight times (actually four) and got only one win to show for it. And I’ve given up less hits (40) than innings pitched. Take away the home runs and I’ve been all right.” On the subject of home runs, Lazorko added: “I turned on the TV last night and saw that 28 home runs were hit (Sunday), a major league record. So I don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, believe me.”

In his second appearance for Palm Springs Sunday night, Donnie Moore pitched one inning, earning a save while allowing three hits and no runs. “I heard his arm was a little heavy, but his side felt great,” Mauch said. Moore is scheduled to pitch again tonight, after McCaskill. . . . It’s Cooperstown Week in Cleveland. Each of the three games in this series will feature a 300-game winner. Don Sutton (315 victories) started Monday, Phil Niekro (316) will pitch tonight and Steve Carlton (328) is scheduled for Wednesday. “Amazing,” Lazorko said. “We have three Hall of Famers going--and then we have me, (DeWayne) Buice and (Mark) Ryal, who have 30 years in the minor leagues.”

Mauch on the playing conditions caused by Monday’s rainstorm: “I’ve played on a lot of fields that were worse than that, but I probably would have called the game (after the second delay). The umpires have got to do what they think is right. I’ll tell you this--Dickie Schofield played a fine game of shortstop in a quagmire.” . . . Greg Minton worked four innings of relief for the second time against Cleveland. On June 10 in Anaheim, Minton pitched four innings in relief of John Candelaria to earn his first AL victory. Monday, Minton picked up his fourth AL save. “That’s a long ways for Minton to go,” Mauch admitted. “That’s earning your money out of the pen. But when you have a nine-man pitching staff, you have to be rather judicious at times. Judicious and resourceful. Originally, the plan was for Minton to go a couple and Buice to go a couple. Now, we can use Buice tomorrow (today).”