Baseball Makes a Reinstatement

It was another head-spinning news day for the Angels on Wednesday, a collage of headlines that included Tony Phillips’ reinstatement from a drug suspension, catcher Todd Greene’s disabling wrist injury, pitcher Mark Langston’s first start in three months, and Yankee pitcher Hideki Irabu’s sometimes-dominant, sometimes-bizarre Southern California debut.

When it was over, after the Angels had suffered a doubleheader sweep at the hands of the Yankees, 7-3 and 8-5, before 32,343 in Anaheim Stadium, the Angels couldn’t have been feeling too good about their playoff hopes, and not just because they fell 1 1/2 games behind Seattle in the West and seven games behind New York in the wild-card race.

Greene, who has put a charge in the Angel lineup with a .290 average, nine homers and 24 RBIs in 34 games, sustained a broken bone in his right wrist in the first game and was placed on the 15-day disabled list, but he’ll likely be sidelined for six to eight weeks--the rest of the regular season.

Langston, who replaced Greene on the roster between games, got bombed in the nightcap, and right-hander Ken Hill, believed to be the final piece to the Angels’ pitching puzzle after he was acquired for catcher Jim Leyritz on July 29, got roughed up again in the first game.

With Chuck Finley suffering from a wrist injury, Allen Watson from fatigue and Jason Dickson from periodic shoulder stiffness, it seems the only pitcher the Angels can rely on these days is knuckleballer Dennis Springer, who was supposed to drop out of the rotation once Langston got back.

But Langston, who underwent elbow surgery May 27 and hadn’t pitched since May 19, didn’t exactly secure his place Wednesday night, giving up five runs on six hits in one inning.

The Angels wanted Langston to make a fourth minor league rehabilitation start this week, but the veteran left-hander refused, claiming he was ready to return. A compromise was reached Tuesday--Langston agreed to pitch a simulated game today.

But when Finley was injured Tuesday and was relieved by Dickson, the scheduled Game 2 starter Wednesday, Manager Terry Collins turned to Langston. An inning or so later, that rehab start wasn’t looking like such a bad idea.

Langston’s second pitch was blasted for a home run by Derek Jeter, and Mike Stanley added an RBI double in the first. Chad Curtis walked and Joe Girardi doubled to open the second, and Rey Sanchez followed with a three-run homer.

After an error and a walk, Langston was done, yielding to reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa and a matchup the Japanese media had been craving--Hasegawa vs. Irabu.

Neither disappointed: Hasegawa pitched six innings of scoreless relief before giving up a three-run homer to Jeter in the seventh, and Irabu gave up three runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings, his two balks leading to two runs and the second balk, in the seventh, eliciting a strange protest, Irabu kicking at the rubber like a mule.

The Angels scored in the second on Jim Edmonds’ homer, in the fourth on Irabu’s balk, in the seventh on Chad Kreuter’s groundout and in the eighth on Tim Salmon’s two run-homer, his 24th home run of the season.

But the Angels squandered an opportunity in the seventh when Rickey Henderson struck out--for the fourth time in the game--with two on against reliever Jeff Nelson to end the inning.

Greene’s evening ended much earlier. He suffered a a fracture of a bone in his right wrist when Sanchez fouled a ball off it in the fourth inning of the first game.

Greene remained in the game for another inning before being sent to Anaheim Memorial Hospital, where X-rays revealed the fracture.

There is no timetable for Greene’s return, and there are essentially no healthy, big-league-ready catchers in the Angel farm system because triple-A catcher Chris Turner and double-A catcher Bret Hemphill are injured. So General Manager Bill Bavasi likely will be burning up the phone lines today attempting to trade for another catcher.

Too bad he can’t send Hill back to Texas for Leyritz. The right-hander suffered another rocky outing in the first game Wednesday, giving up seven runs on 11 hits in five innings before leaving.

*

* RANDY HARVEY

A young arbitrator’s logic hits home. C2