Angels Come Up Empty in 8-4 Loss to Red Sox

BOSTON — Keeping one’s eye on the ball can be easier said than done, as evidenced by the third inning of the Angels’ 8-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox Saturday, when 20/20 vision seemed to guarantee only a 50-50 chance of being correct.

Was Boston’s Marty Barrett really hit on the hand by Ray Krawczyk’s fastball, as Barrett and plate umpire Don Denkinger contended? Or had the ball hit Barrett’s bat, as Angel catcher Bob Boone contended? Or had it hit nothing at all, as Angel Manager Cookie Rojas contended?

Then there was the case of Mike Greenwell’s home run, struck one out later with Barrett on second base and Wade Boggs on first. No doubt, the ball was in the right-field seats. But, everyone wondered briefly, was it also in the glove of Angel right fielder Chili Davis, who was also deposited in the seats?

Davis went up and over the fence in his attempt to catch Greenwell’s drive, and as he disappeared into a sea of humanity, three Boston baserunners nearly put on a vaudeville act around second base.

Barrett broke for third, and Greenwell rounded first, but Boggs, squinting toward the right-field corner, held up at second. This could have caused serious complications. Greenwell nearly passed Boggs on the basepaths before he spotted Boggs at the last instant, screeched to a halt and turned to watch Davis climb back onto the field. Barrett, too, had second thoughts about the home run and began to retreat to second.

There, he almost bumped into Boggs. Had there been a camera tripod at second base, the three Red Sox could have posed for a group portrait.

Finally, Davis displayed his open--and empty--glove, the signal to Barrett, Boggs and Greenwell that it was all right to proceed home. And off they went, in single file.

No way did Boston want to botch this one, considering the rarity of Red Sox home runs this season. Greenwell’s homer was the club’s first in 210 at-bats, dating back to last Sunday, and only the team’s 18th of 1988.

A shame to waste it by running past a teammate on the bases.

“That would not have been a good thing,” Greenwell deadpanned.

The only thing worse, Boggs mused, would have been “hitting a home run to center field and then having a tornado blow it back in. That would have been total irony.”

Well, maybe not irony exactly, but it would have been weird.

Davis, meanwhile, had conspired to foil the home run in a different fashion.

“I should have had one of my buddies out there put the ball in my glove,” Davis said, grinning. “ ‘Look, I caught it.’ ”

Now, Chili, you wouldn’t think of doing such a thing, would you?

“Hey,” Davis said, “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”

Back to Barrett and the “phantom” hit-by-pitch. The Angels never directly accused Barrett of cheating.

But, to paraphrase Davis, they believed he was trying.

Krawczyk’s pitch spun Barrett around in the batter’s box, and the ball appeared to strike something. Boone and television replays indicated that the ball hit the bat, but Barrett immediately began shaking his hand. Denkinger believed him and waved Barrett to first base.

“The ball nicked me on the knuckle,” Barrett told reporters.

But the Angels have been flim-flammed by Barrett before--he pulled the hidden-ball trick on them twice in 1985--and Saturday, the Angels thought he was trying to pull another fast one.

“Marty told me it hit him, so it must have,” said a sarcastic Wally Joyner, the Angel first baseman.

Added Krawczyk: “I don’t know how he (Barrett) influenced that, but I know I didn’t throw inside on him. That pitch was up and over the middle of the plate.”

And from Rojas, who insisted Krawczyk’s pitch hit nothing or no one: “Not only did it not hit Barrett, but it also cost us a strikeout. He spun around completely and that should have been the third strike.”

Instead, Barrett wound up on first base, soon to move to second when Krawczyk walked the next batter, Boggs. After a strikeout by Dwight Evans, Krawczyk served up Greenwell’s fifth home run of the season and a 3-2 Angel lead had become a 5-3 deficit.

Krawczyk placed the blame on Denkinger’s hit-by-pitch call.

“That kind of upset me,” he said. “I thought about that the rest of the inning. Instead of forgetting about it and telling myself ‘It’s over with,’ it stayed on my mind.”

Krawczyk (0-1) was making his first major league start, temporarily vacating the bullpen to bail out an Angel starting rotation drained by Thursday’s doubleheader in Baltimore.

“I was really psyched up,” Krawczyk said. “I was so pumped up, I was getting the ball up in the strike zone in the first inning. I had to tell myself to relax and just pitch.”

Krawczyk wound up pitching for just 4 innings. He gave up two runs in the first inning and three more in the fifth, leaving the game with the Angels trailing, 8-3.

Krawczyk was asked what he learned from his first start.

“You make a mistake up here at this level and they’re going to hit it,” Krawczyk said.

And then, they’re going to watch it. Sometimes, that can be the hardest part.

Angel Notes

Chili Davis, on his free-fall into the stands while pursuing Mike Greenwell’s third-inning home run: “It was fun. I hadn’t done that in a while. I thought I came pretty close to (the ball); it just missed my glove. If I caught it, it would’ve nice--on the Game of the World, saving us three runs. Then again, by the time I climbed out of the seats, the guy on second could have tagged and scored.” Davis admitted that “I’m not much of a leaper. I’m not into basketball. My claim to fame is not leaping. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure what my claim to fame is.” . . . Davis also tripled and homered in four at-bats, driving his triple off the wall in straight-away center field and sending his home run high over the Green Monster in left. “Right now, I’m being a little more aggressive with the bat,” Davis said. “I figure if I strike out, big deal. It seems like I’ve got a hundred strikeouts already. If I get a hundred more, what the hell. If I go after a pitch now, I’m going to go after it.”

Bruce Hurst (6-1) earned the victory for Boston, limiting the Angels to 4 runs (2 earned) on 7 hits through 7 innings. A throwing error by Red Sox first baseman Dwight Evans set up a pair of unearned Angel runs in the third inning. Lee Smith was summoned from the bullpen for the save, striking out pinch-hitter Jack Howell with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth. Smith also worked a hitless ninth inning to record his sixth save. . . . Brian Downing saw his eight-game hitting streak end with an 0-for-5 performance. During the streak, Downing batted .457 (16 for 35) with 3 home runs and 6 RBIs. . . . At the urging of NBC broadcaster Tony Kubek, DeWayne Buice found himself reading off the Angels’ starting lineup a la Maxwell Smart (“And would you believe Ray Krawczyk making his first major league start?”) before the nationally televised game. “It took me four takes to get it right,” Buice said. “I was nervous, no doubt about that. Pitching is a hell of a lot easier, although there, you’ve got to do it in only one take.” . . . Also before Saturday’s game, the Red Sox retired the uniform number (1) of Hall of Fame second baseman Bobby Doerr.