Angels Get Help, Top Twins : Baseball: Reserves Tingley, Correia and Javier come to the aid of rookie left-hander Hilly Hathaway in 4-2 victory. - Los Angeles Times
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Angels Get Help, Top Twins : Baseball: Reserves Tingley, Correia and Javier come to the aid of rookie left-hander Hilly Hathaway in 4-2 victory.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Three players who have spent most of the season in the dugout helped the Angels beat the Minnesota Twins and make a winner of rookie left-hander Hilly Hathaway.

Catcher Ron Tingley, infielder Rod Correia and outfielder Stan Javier helped the Angels to a 4-2 victory in front of 23,777 Friday night at Anaheim Stadium.

Tingley, the Angels’ No. 3 catcher at the beginning of the season, has been platooning with Greg Myers because John Orton is on the disabled list with an inflamed elbow.

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Correia, a rookie called up from triple-A Vancouver on June 20, has been the club’s designated pinch-runner in late innings.

Javier has been used primarily as a pinch-hitter and an infrequent replacement in the outfield.

But they were in the lineup Friday and made the most of their chance.

Tingley singled and scored twice. Correia singled twice and scored once. Javier singled and scored in a seventh-inning rally.

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The Angels’ trailed, 2-1, going into the seventh, but Tingley walked and Correia singled to get them started on a three-run inning that gave them the lead.

Javier hit reliever Mike Trombley’s first pitch into right field, scoring Tingley. Chad Curtis hit Trombley’s second pitch into left field, scoring Correia.

After Tim Salmon reached first on a fielder’s choice, Chili Davis drove home Javier with a sharp single to right-center field.

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Salmon was thrown out trying to score from first, but the Angels had all the runs they would need.

Reliever Mike Butcher pitched a perfect eighth inning and wriggled out of a jam in the ninth, retiring pinch-hitter Mike Pagliarulo with runners on first and second to end the game.

Butcher earned his third save and his second in as many games. He saved Mark Langston’s 10th victory Wednesday.

Minnesota starter Jim Deshaies (11-8) retired the first seven he faced before giving up back-to-back singles by Tingley and Correia in the third inning.

Five of the first seven Deshaies faced grounded out and for a while it looked as if the Twins might end one of major league baseball’s most dubious streaks this season.

The Twins went into Friday’s game as the only team in the majors without a complete game from their pitching staff, a streak of 101 consecutive games. By contrast, the Angels lead the American League with 16 complete games.

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But Deshaies was gone by the seventh inning, replaced by Trombley after giving up a one-out walk to Tingley and a single by Correia. He gave up six hits and three runs, two earned, in 6 1/3 innings.

He has come as close as any Twin to going the distance, however. He pitched eight innings, giving up only four hits, in a 2-0 victory over the Angels on June 27 at the Metrodome.

But by the third inning Friday, it was clear that Deshaies wouldn’t keep the Angels in check for long.

Singles by Tingley and Correia and a throwing error by shortstop Pat Meares on Javier’s slow grounder produced the Angels’ first run, cutting Minnesota’s lead to 2-1.

But things fell apart for Deshaies and the Twins in the Angels’ three-run seventh.

The Twins hit Hathaway right from the start, but double plays in each of the first three innings kept them from opening a bigger lead.

Twin catcher Brian Harper extended his hitting streak to nine games with run-scoring singles in the first and third innings.

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Hathaway, who hadn’t gone longer than 7 2/3 innings, settled down after his rocky start, retiring 12 of the next 14 he faced. Chuck Knoblauch, who hit a bloop single to left-center field in the fifth, was thrown out trying to steal second. In the seventh, he gave up a two-out double to third baseman Jeff Reboulet. Reboulet was stranded when Shane Mack grounded out to end the inning.

This is not to say that Hathaway had a firm grip on his pitches.

He threw one pitch to Dave Winfield in the sixth that bounced halfway to the backstop. Another zipped behind Gene Larkin.

But after the third, he kept the Twins quiet and gave the Angels a chance in the late innings.

Hathaway was replaced by Butcher to start the eighth.

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