Angels Are Delirious to Be .500 Club Again

CLEVELAND — Getting out of Cleveland is bound to lift anyone’s spirits, but Angel relief pitcher DeWayne Buice teetered on the brink of delirium following his team’s 10-5 series-ending victory over the Indians Wednesday night.

“We’re going to win it,” said Buice, who wasn’t referring to tonight’s game against Milwaukee at Anaheim Stadium. He meant the American League West, the division title, the whole ball-of-wax enchiladas.

“Why not?” Buice continued, pressing onward. “This is a great team to be with now.

“We were semi-struggling after those nine losses in a row. We were still uneasy--win one, lose one, win two, lose two. Now, we’ve finally learned to win together. It’s going to be tough to stop us now.”

You could write off such talk as youthful enthusiasm, except that this rookie is 29 years old.

And then there was the comment by Angel Manager Gene Mauch, who is in the middle of his 26th season as a big league manager.

“Things are pretty even now,” Mauch said, alluding to the newly scrambled AL West race. “Things are pretty even--unless we play our best.

“If we play our best, we’re the best.”

Reality for the Angels is fifth place and a 39-39 record. And to reach the .500 level, the Angels had to beat the losingest team in the American League and a 42-year-old pitcher Wednesday night.

But that victory enabled the Angels to conclude a nine-game trip at 8-1, which, percentage-wise, ranks as the second-best road swing in the club’s history. Only a 6-0 trip in 1979 surpassed it.

Still, talk of pennants from a team that looked and played comatose two weeks ago?

“This trip wasn’t a revelation,” Mauch said. “It’s a re-affirmation. It re-affirmed the way we’re capable of playing.”

The Angels lost only once during stops in Texas, Chicago and Cleveland. That came Tuesday night by a 2-1 margin, when Phil Niekro shut down the Angel offense while the Angel defense fell asleep on a routine rundown play. So, it was a nearly perfect trip, although Wednesday’s finale was far from perfect.

The Angels committed two errors in the first inning and fell behind, 3-0, after two. Starter Jerry Reuss lasted just five innings, allowing seven hits and four runs.

But as rain fell on Municipal Stadium, Angel hitters poured it on against Steve Carlton (5-6) and four Cleveland relievers, finishing with 17 hits and 10 runs.

With his 16th home run, a double and two singles, rookie Devon White had his first four-hit game as a major-leaguer.

Doug DeCinces, batting .222 at game time, broke out with three hits and four RBIs.

Bob Boone had three hits and two RBIs in his first three plate appearances and Dick Schofield (.217 before Wednesday) and Gary Pettis (.223) had two hits apiece.

The Angels scored five runs for Reuss, who left with a 5-4 lead, thus making him 3-0 in three AL starts. Buice finished up with four innings of one-hit relief, giving him seven saves--the same as Kansas City’s Dan Quisenberry.

“I’ve just got on the elevator,” said Buice when informed of that fact. “I hope I reach the same floor he did.”

The Angels helped Reuss get into trouble early. DeCinces let a dribbler by Julio Franco skip under his glove for a first-inning infield single. Schofield dropped the ball on a potential play, letting a run score. DeCinces threw another ball away, helping keep the inning alive so Cleveland could score another run.

Reuss finally pitched out of it, escaping with a 2-0 deficit and two Indians stranded on base.

“His strongest inning was the first one,” Mauch said, admiring the minimal damage done. “He did some pitching to get out of that inning.”

But Reuss went out to allow runs in the second and fifth innings as well, prompting action from Mauch. He brought on Buice to pitch four innings, two days after bringing on Greg Minton to do the same.

“I make those relievers earn those saves,” Mauch said with a grin.

Buice protected the offense’s handiwork. The Angels knocked Carlton out of the game in the fifth and combined for five more runs against the Indians’ first two relievers, Doug Jones and Mike Armstrong.

White drove in three runs with a solo home run in the fifth inning and a two-run single in the seventh. DeCinces’ four RBIs came on a sacrifice fly, a one-run single and a two-run single.

“I feel like things are starting to come around for me,” said DeCinces, whose average dipped as low as .207 during the month of June. “But I don’t want to make any predictions. I still have a long way to go.”

And so do the Angels, bold talk or not.

DeCinces knows this, but said he felt Wednesday’s victory, coming after a difficult defeat, was a step in the right direction.

“I felt it was very important to win this one,” he said. “We had a good road trip, but I didn’t want to end it under those circumstances (losing two straight).

“This made it a great road trip.”

Angel Notes The Angels, a.k.a. Retreads, Inc., gave another castoff another chance Wednesday by signing former major league outfielder Tony Armas to a Triple-A contract. Armas, who turns 34 today, spent 11 seasons with Pittsburgh, Oakland and Boston, compiling career totals of .251 batting average, 224 home runs and 721 RBIs. Armas led the American League in home runs twice--as recently as 1984, when he had 43 homers and 123 RBIs for Boston. Bothered by injuries in 1986, Armas batted .264 with 11 home runs and 58 RBIs while playing out his option. The Red Sox decided not to pick up that option during the offseason and released Armas last Oct. 31. Since opening day, the Angels have signed a total of six ex-big leaguers--pitchers Greg Minton, Jerry Reuss and Doug Corbett (since released), infielder Ricky Adams and outfielder Mark Brouhard (both with Double-A Midland) and now Armas. Armas will report to Edmonton on Monday. . . . Edmonton could also be in Kirk McCaskill’s future. Angel assistant general manager Preston Gomez, who scouted McCaskill’s five-inning workout at Palm Springs Tuesday night, said he recommended to General Manager Mike Port that McCaskill start at least one more minor league game, possibly with Edmonton. The Trappers play in Phoenix Sunday, McCaskill’s next scheduled start, so the logistics have enhanced the possibility of such a move. Said Gomez: “McCaskill had a real fluid delivery but it’s like he’s going through spring training right now. If he has to pitch on the big club, there might be too much pressure. There (in the minors), he can do anything--there is no pressure at all. Nobody thought he’d be pitching in June and he’s already done that twice. There’s no need to rush it.” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said no decision would be made on McCaskill or Donnie Moore, who pitched two innings Tuesday, until the team returned home. “I want to talk to Preston and Kirk. I heard he threw the ball good and I heard Donnie blistered it. Donnie threw 91, 92 miles and hour and said he felt good. Now, I want to see for myself.” . . . Mauch said he has been asked to assist American League Manager John McNamara as a coach for the July 14 All-Star Game but will decline. The Angels open a 14-game trip immediately following the All-Star break and Mauch didn’t want to add another three days to his travel schedule. “That’s for the kids,” he said. “The old man needs some sleep.”