Huson’s Hit Wins It for Angels : Baseball: Anaheim rallies to beat White Sox in 10th on another hard-luck night for Belcher.
This is how the season has gone for Angel pitcher Tim Belcher.
In the third inning Wednesday, Chicago’s Brook Fordyce smashed a two-run homer, the team-high 26th home run Belcher has given up. In the fourth, Chris Singleton’s dribbler rolled under Belcher’s glove, an error that led to two more White Sox runs.
He battled. He labored. He had nothing to show for it, which was kind of a victory in this season on the brink.
Belcher was long gone by the time Jeff Huson’s double scored Matt Walbeck in the 10th inning for a 6-5 Angel victory in front of 17,246 at Edison Field. The Angels rallied from a 5-3 deficit on a two-run homer by Mo Vaughn in the seventh, then won the game when Walbeck raced home from first on Huson’s hit into the right-field corner.
It marked the first time the Angels have won three consecutive games since a four-game winning streak July 6-10.
Still, while Belcher was happy with the team’s victory, it was another frustrating night in a season chock full of them.
“This season has been a pain . . . “ said Belcher who has a 6-8 record. “The stuff that has gone on in the last 10 days has been embarrassing to all of us, or at least it should be.â€
There has been too much losing and far too much griping for Belcher. It came to a boil for him when Manager Terry Collins resigned on Friday, for which Belcher accepted “one-25th of the blame.â€
The season, for which the Angel marketing slogan said to “Bring Your Game,†deteriorated into daily finger-pointing, which seemed to make “Bring Your Shame†more appropriate.
“We need to think about our effort on the field and nothing else,†Belcher said. “I think we have had enough of the ‘nothing else’ to last a career.â€
And Belcher is in his 14th season, with No. 15 a certainty. The Angels signed him to a two-year, $10.2-milion contract.
He was Plan C after they were unable to convince Kevin Brown or Randy Johnson to come to Anaheim. Still, it seemed like a solid move. Belcher wasn’t a No. 1 starter, but he had logged more than 200 innings three consecutive seasons, compiling a 42-37 record in that time.
A perfect grinder for the Angel rotation. Instead, Belcher has spent the season gnashing his teeth.
Belcher made it beyond the fifth inning only once in his first six starts. After losing to Chicago on May 3, he was 1-2 with a 9.96 earned-run average.
There was a June 5 brawl with the Dodgers, when Chan Ho Park tried to kick him. And then, just when he began to pitch better, Belcher broke the pinky on his right hand while tagging a runner out in a rundown. It cost him six weeks.
“It doesn’t really pay to complain,†Belcher said. “Who is going to listen any way? Who is going to be sympathetic? Only other big league players.â€
Belcher pitched well enough to win Wednesday, giving up only six hits before leaving after giving up Carlos Lee’s double to start the eighth inning. But he was a victim of his own mistakes.
Fordyce’s homer gave the White Sox a 2-0 lead in the third. Belcher nearly gave up another in the fourth, but left fielder Darin Erstad robbed Magglio Ordonez of a home run. Belcher’s error later in the inning led to Craig Wilson’s two-run single.
Not exactly the way Belcher wanted to start the first day of the rest of his season.
“We have to make it right next year and to do that we have to finish out these games the way we should have played,†Belcher said. “We need to take that into the off-season.
“That’s the only way to look at it when you have had a poor season as a team, like we have had, and a poor season personally, like a number of us have had.â€
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