Angels Finally Turn Tide With 9-5 Win

It might have been one ripple in the sea of runs scored during a 9-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners, but the Angels hope it’s the start of a tidal wave.

With a sacrifice fly and an opposite-field single to left in the third inning, Dave Winfield and Dave Parker drove in runs in the same game for the first time this season. Parker’s slump and Winfield’s pulled hamstring had thrown the two out of sync, but they were in tune Wednesday.

“With those two, you knew it had to happen sooner or later,” said catcher Lance Parrish, who chimed in with a sixth-inning home run that chased Mariner starter Rich DeLucia (1-2). “This could be the start of something big.”

After a total of 13 hits during their first two games against Seattle, the Angels had 13 in the series finale. Each of the first seven batters in the lineup drove in at least one run, and the Angels deprived the Mariners of a club-record ninth consecutive victory.

“We’re very capable of putting together another streak like this,” Mariner Manager Jim Lefebvre said. “We never give up as a team. We played hard to the end. We’ve got to keep that attitude.”

Angel starter Chuck Finley wasn’t as sharp as when he two-hit the Minnesota Twins last Sunday, but he pitched into the seventh inning and improved his record to 4-0. Finley and Boston’s Roger Clemens are the only four-game winners in the major leagues.

“I thought he had better stuff his last time out, but his last couple times out he’s been exceptional,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “He has a way of spoiling you. Even when it’s not his best stuff, it’s very, very good.”

Seattle scored unearned runs in the fifth and seventh innings because of passed balls, but the Angels pulled away with a four-run flurry in the eighth that sent the Anaheim Stadium crowd of 24,638 scurrying to the parking lot.

“This is a little more like what I think this team is capable of doing,” said third baseman Gary Gaetti, who hit a home run in the eighth inning in his second four-hit game as an Angel. “It’s a matter of time and timing.”

The timing was right for Winfield and Parker. Winfield’s sacrifice fly scored Luis Polonia, who had led off the third inning with a triple to right; Parker’s single scored Donnie Hill, who had walked and moved to second when Wally Joyner also walked. Parker, who hit a homer in his first Angel at-bat, then went 46 at-bats without another RBI until last Sunday, regarded Wednesday’s events as a good omen.

“This was the first of many games like this, hopefully,” said Parker, who broke a six-for-45 slump with two hits in four at-bats.

“I just decided to be relaxed and take what they gave me. I’ve been pulling outside pitches, but today I just flipped it. I was just trying to go back to what got me here. It felt good, real good.”

According to Parrish, Parker looked good, too.

“To see him go the other way, that’s a good sign. It’s the first time I’ve seen him go the other way in a while,” Parrish said. “In order for him to be successful, he has to drive the ball to the left side. It looked like today he got a pretty good feel for the way he wants to carry things into the Oakland series.”

The Angels carried the day through persistence. “I’m glad those guys are leaving town,” Gaetti said of the Mariners. “Those guys are good.”

They were good enough to pull even at 2-2 in the top of the fifth inning on Pete O’Brien’s double--a drive that stuck in the padding on the fence in right-center--plus a passed ball, a walk to Dave Valle and Harold Reynolds’ two-run single up the middle past Finley’s head. The Angels made it 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth when Polonia waited out a full-count walk, moved to second on Hill’s sacrifice and scored on Joyner’s single to center.

Parrish’s homer, his third, gave the Angels a 4-2 lead. That became 5-2 when Polonia doubled into the gap in left-center to score Gaetti, who was credited with a single when second baseman Reynolds lost his pop-up in the sun.

“Luis has done a terrific job for us,” Rader said of Polonia. “Parker had a couple of good at-bats, Winny did, Lance hit that home run--a lot of good things happened.”

The Mariners came back again in the seventh on Jay Buhner’s leadoff homer and a walk by O’Brien. That was all for Finley.

“He had good stuff. If anything, he was a little more inconsistent than (in) his other start,” Parrish said of Finley. “He just made a few mistakes.”

The Angels made no mistakes in their half of the eighth inning, putting the Mariners away on Gaetti’s homer, Polonia’s run-scoring single and Hill’s two-run triple.

“I like this ballclub when Dave Parker’s hot, and with Gary it’s just a question of time before he’s really going,” Parrish said. “When we start to swing the bats the way we’re capable of, we’re going to start beating up on people.”