Angels So Hot They Need I.V. : After Sweeping Away Tigers

DETROIT â€”  Angel utility player Rex Hudler walked into Tiger Stadium Sunday weighing 200 pounds. He departed following the Angels’ doubleheader sweep of Detroit weighing 192 pounds but with a greater appreciation for modern medicine.

It may have been “the longest day of my life� for first baseman J.T. Snow--it took the Angels a total of 6 hours 6 minutes to defeat the Tigers, 6-4 and 13-6, before an announced crowd of 21,186, and that was with the second game being called after eight innings because of rain.

But Hudler thought it might be the last day of his life. He left the second game in the eighth inning, came down with a severe case of the shakes in the clubhouse and couldn’t walk. Then he passed out in the trainers’ room.

“I was in bad trouble and didn’t even know it,� said Hudler, who had three hits on a day when temperatures reached the mid-90s.

Hudler was suffering from heat exhaustion and, according to trainer Ned Bergert, was “on the edge of going to the third [and most extreme] level� of heat-related trauma, heat stroke.

But Hudler was treated with intravenous fluids and had recovered within an hour.

“I’m back to life, it’s beautiful, man,� Hudler said. “They got some fluids in me, I chilled off, and now I feel great. Im ready for another game. I feel wonderful. I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow.�

Next up for the Angels is Cleveland, where baseball’s best team, the Central Division-leading Indians, will play host to the game’s most surprising team, the West-leading Angels, in a two-game series beginning tonight.

After staging a dramatic, four-run, eighth-inning rally for a victory in the first game Sunday, the Angels bombed the Tigers for 19 hits in the nightcap to complete their first four-game, Tiger Stadium sweep.

The Angels last swept the Tigers in a four-game series in Anaheim in 1989. It also marked the Angels’ first doubleheader sweep since May 19, 1988, when they took two from the Orioles in Baltimore.

Center fielder Jim Edmonds went five for 10 with two home runs, six runs batted in and four runs on the day. Rookie left fielder Garret Anderson went five for eight with two homers, five RBIs and four runs.

Right fielder Tim Salmon went four for eight, and Snow keyed a five-run first inning in the nightcap with a three-run homer.

Chuck Finley (8-7) went seven innings to gain the victory in the first game, with Lee Smith getting save No. 22, and rookie reliever Mike James (1-0) pitched three scoreless innings to gain his first major league victory in the second.

“It was a tough day, a long day, a real hot and humid day,� Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “But these were really good wins for us.�

The Angels won the nightcap with power--they had 13 hits in the first three innings and four homers in the game.

But they won the first game with precision. Trailing, 4-2, going into the eighth, they put together what might have been their six best consecutive at-bats of the season, with the highlight being a walk.

A recap:

--Hudler led off and was hit by a pitch.

--Edmonds, a left-handed hitter, went the opposite way against left-handed reliever Brian Bohanon, slapping an outside fastball down the left-field line for an RBI double to trim the deficit to 4-3.

--Salmon, facing right-handed reliever Joe Boever, tried to hit to the right side to move Edmonds to third. He wound up with a single to right, with Edmonds stopping at third.

--Snow fell behind, 0-2, and began fouling off Boever pitches. He worked the count to 3-2, fouled off two more pitches, then walked to load the bases.

--Anderson, facing left-handed reliever Buddy Groom, drilled a ball down the right-field line for a three-run double and a 6-4 lead.

--Rod Correia fell behind 0-2 but still managed to slap a grounder to second, advancing Anderson to third with one out.

Anderson was stranded at third, but shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who homered in the fifth inning, couldn’t help but marvel at the sequence.

“The key to that was Snow’s walk--he was down, 0-2, and they thought they had him, and then he gets on to load the bases,� he said. “That whole stretch showed that good things happen when you try to do things for the team.

“Tim tries to move a runner up and gets a single. J.T. works his butt off for a walk. Jim and Garret get their hits off left-handers--you can kind of throw the book out the window on those.

“That pretty much sums up the way we’ve been playing this year. It illustrates that we don’t just depend on one guy to win the game. That’s a terrific way to play.�