Grahe Has Rare Blown Save; Angels Lose, 7-5

Joe Grahe has been so successful since he switched from starting to relieving, he had to take a moment to consider how he’d deal with blowing a save against the Minnesota Twins Sunday and absorbing the loss in the Angels’ 7-5 defeat before 20,685 at Anaheim Stadium.

“It’ll eat at me all day today,” said Grahe, who failed to convert a save opportunity for only the second time in 22 chances when he gave up a leadoff walk to Shane Mack and RBI hits to Kirby Puckett, Brian Harper and Darren Reed in the ninth inning.

“Once I get out of here (the clubhouse), I’ve learned how to drop things a little easier,” added Grahe, who won his only other blown save, on July 22. “I’ve got to pick things out of this that will help me the next time out.”

His mistakes were obvious. “Late in the game walking the leadoff guy, getting into trouble and getting into a situation where I had to get some guys out, and I didn’t,” said Grahe (5-5), the third of five Angel pitchers. “I threw a couple of changeups, one to Puckett, and he smoked it (for a double). Basically, I didn’t do the things I’m supposed to do to be successful--stay ahead and don’t walk the leadoff hitters. And don’t hang changeups.”

Minnesota’s comeback against Grahe dimmed the glow of Damion Easley’s first major league home run, a three-run drive in the eighth inning to left off Rick Aguilera (2-6) that gave the Angels a 5-4 lead. Easley, hitting for Ken Oberkfell, lined a 1-and-0 fastball down the line and into the seats to deprive Aguilera of his 40th save; the homer scored Hubie Brooks, who struck out but reached first when catcher Brian Harper threw wildly to first, and Junior Felix, who singled. It also had Easley hoping his first homer would be doubly memorable for being a game-winner.

“For a minute I thought it would be,” he said. “That would have been nice. It was a fastball right out over the plate, and I took a nice, easy swing. I was trying to go up the middle and I got a little out in front.”

Impressive as his homer was--and even Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly declared Easley “looks like he’s going to be a good player with a nice career ahead”--Easley vehemently resisted the suggestion he might become a power hitter.

“No. No, no, no. Never,” said Easley, who has five doubles and is hitting .283 after 34 games. “If it happens, they’re usually pitches right in my zone. I don’t have a power zone from my knees to my chest. I have a very small zone, and if they can get it in there, only that’s when I can do something with it.”

The Angels couldn’t do much against Pat Mahomes Sunday until the sixth inning. By then, the Twins had a 3-0 lead against Chuck Finley. They got two runs on a single in the third by Pedro Munoz after the Angels intentionally walked Puckett, and they got an unearned run in the fifth. That also was a four-out inning: Puckett led off by striking out, but reached first when catcher John Orton’s throw to first was high and wild. Puckett stole second, took third on Munoz’s fly to right and scored on Harper’s sacrifice fly.

The Angels loaded the bases in the sixth against Mahomes, an inning capped by Gary Gaetti’s two-run single off reliever Carl Willis. The Twins increased their lead to 4-2 in the seventh on a double, a ground out and Munoz’s sacrifice fly, but the Angels wiped that out in the eighth--temporarily.

“Joe Grahe has had an outstanding year, but he’s human,” Manager Buck Rodgers said. “Joe wasn’t his usual very good self. . . . You’ve got to take the bitter with the sweet, but that’s the way it is with a guy who comes in and closes, whether it’s Bryan Harvey, Eck (Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley) or Aguilera. When you blow a save in the ninth, it hurts.”

Grahe attested to that. “It’s a shame this has to happen in a situation where we got a big three-run home run and I come in and give it up again,” he said. “You just stay with it and then you drop it and go on to the next game. You just make sure it doesn’t happen too often.”

Angel Attendance

Sunday: 20,685

1991 (74 dates): 2,253,684

1992 (74 dates): 1,923,603

Decrease: 330,081

Average: 25,995