Shove Comes to Push as Finley Lifts Angels, 2-1

CHICAGO —  In the absence of cavalry or divine intervention, the Angels settled for five innings from Chuck Finley Friday night.

Straits were fairly dire by the time Finley was handed the baseball before the second game of a twi-night doubleheader with the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park. A five-game Angel winning streak had come to an end in wholly lethargic fashion--Melido Perez (5.19 pregame earned-run average) held them to two hits, 3-1--and the Angels had temporarily slipped another half-game back in the American League West standings.

The first-place Oakland Athletics now stood a little farther in the distance, the spread up to 4 1/2 games, pending the results of Game 2 in Chicago and Oakland’s engagement with Roger Clemens in Boston.

Under these conditions, Finley made his first Angel start in 25 days.

As could be expected, he was a little ragged.

As could be expected, he tired quickly.

But over the course of 67 pitches, Finley equaled the most hopeful of Angel expectations--limiting the White Sox to one run and earning the decision in a 2-1 Angel victory before a crowd of 11,202.

More than that, Finley (15-8) helped the Angels gain ground in the West by the end of the night. When Oakland and Kansas City lost, the Angels moved back to within 3 1/2 games of the Athletics and into a second-place tie with the Royals.

“Now you know why we said we missed him so much,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “Here’s a guy who hadn’t done much in a long while and he comes in and does that . . .

“When I said it was a little demoralizing when we lost him in Kansas City, I meant it. Honestly, he’s one of the premier pitchers in the league.”

Finley was making his return to the Angel rotation after suffering a sprained foot ligament--and scaring his coaches and teammates--while twisting his ankle in the Royals Stadium bullpen Aug. 21. In the interim, the Angels went 0-3 in the starts Finley missed, dropped as many as six games back in the West and were on the verge of their fourth doubleheader sweep of 1989 before he interceded.

Before Friday, the Angels were 0-6 in doubleheader games this season--getting swept in Texas on June 14, in Toronto on July 17 and in Boston on Aug. 29.

After Perez’s two-hitter, that record stood at 0-7.

“My overriding thought was, ‘Here we go again,’ ” Rader said. “Here’s another doubleheader and we’re not going to score enough to pull it out and we’re going to be 0-4-0 in doubleheaders.

“You keep losing two games a day and that’s going to be devastating to anybody. Especially when you’re starting an important road trip like this.”

And all the Angels had to counter with was a stamina-shy Finley and a hope that the bullpen wouldn’t be torn to shreds by the final out.

Finley pitched into the sixth inning--he faced one batter, Ivan Calderon, and yielded a single--before giving way to Greg Minton and Bryan Harvey.

Minton, who worked the last three innings of the Angels’ Wednesday night victory over the New York Yankees, came back two days later to work three more. In the ninth, he was followed by Harvey, who had flu and was hoping for the evening off.

But circumstances beckoned Harvey, so out of the bullpen he lumbered. He faced three hitters and retired them in order, followed quickly by his own retirement to the Angel clubhouse.

For Finley, the early going seemed simple enough. He began the game with two perfect innings and faced only three batters in the third inning, surrendering a single to Robin Ventura but seeing Ventura thrown out on a stolen-base attempt by Angel catcher John Orton.

In the fourth inning, Finley started to waver. He gave up a leadoff double to Lance Johnson, followed by an infield single by Scott Fletcher.

Calderon then hit a sharp one-hopper at third baseman Jack Howell. Gambling by throwing home, Howell fired a strong relay to Orton, whose lunging scoop was barely in time to get Johnson and prevent the run.

Finley retired the next two hitters and took a 1-0 lead into the fifth, when Chicago finally broke through with a walk (to Sammy Sosa), a hit batter (Ventura) and an score-tying single (by Dave Gallagher).

The Angels, however, reclaimed the lead in the top of the sixth on a home run by Tony Armas, the eventual difference in the final outcome.

Finley assessed his return performance as “pretty good. I was kind of concerned about how my location was going to be, but it seemed like right off the bat, I was getting ahead of batters. My curveball was the best it’s ever been.

“All in all, I was surprised by my command. I thought I’d be all over the place the first couple of innings.”

That’s the way the Angels played the first game--all over the place, expect for maybe home plate. Defensively, they wobbled often, with right fielder Claudell Washington losing a fly ball in the sun to set up one run and catcher Lance Parrish committing a passed ball to allow another.

Those runs were all that were required by Perez (10-13), who limited the Angels to a sixth-inning single by Devon White and a seventh-inning double by Brian Downing.

Both games combined, the Angel offense totaled 10 hits and three runs, normally not the type of production that bodes well in doubleheaders at Comiskey Park.

“Kind of a push,” was how Rader summarized the day. “It could’ve either been a day we really regretted or a day to get extremely happy about.

“Considering that we scored three runs and came out of it with a push, I’m elated.”

That’s how the doubleheader has treated the Angels, who this season have never happened upon a great day to play two.

Angel Notes

Don’t Believe the Hype: It was an odd sensation, watching Jim Abbott pitch Friday’s first game inside an all-but-empty Comiskey Park, with less than 3,000 fans scattered throughout the 44,000-seat stadium. This was Abbott’s Comiskey Park debut and, predictably, the White Sox plugged the event by taking out an ad in Friday’s Chicago Tribune. One problem: The advertisement read, “See Angels’ Rookie Star Jim Abbott Pitch Game 2.” Missed it by one game. Chuck Finley, of course, was the Angels’ starter in Game 2. By then, 11,202 had filtered into the park, only to discover that the featured attraction had already come and gone.

Abbott (11-11) was charged with the loss, but he probably deserved better. He gave up three runs on seven hits through seven innings, but one Chicago run scored on a passed ball by catcher Lance Parrish and another was set up when right fielder Claudell Washington lost a fly ball by Carlos Martinez in the second inning. Martinez wound up with a double on the play and scored, one out later, on a wild pitch. Washington, who roamed the Comiskey Park outfield for the White Sox from 1978 to 1980, didn’t need a reminder of how bad the glare can be when the sun sets behind home plate. “It’s always been a tough place,” Washington said. “Sunglasses aren’t any help, either. What can you do? I never saw the ball.” Added Wally Joyner: “It’s such a bad glare. It’s not like you put your glasses down and see one circle that’s the sun and another that’s the ball. The glare is so big, it’s like a big explosion behind home plate.”