Witt Backs Out, but Angels Rally to Beat Blue Jays, 7-6

Willie Fraser had some big shoes to fill Wednesday night because of what happened to Mike Witt when he tried to fill his own a day earlier.

Witt was getting dressed, preparing for his daily drive to Anaheim Stadium Tuesday afternoon, when he reached down to pull up his socks. That’s a long reach--Witt stands 6 feet 7 inches--and before he could straighten up, Witt pulledsomething else.

Acute muscle spasms in the lower back, the Angels are calling it. “It felt like my back locked up,” is how Witt described it. Either way, Witt wound up spending Tuesday night in bed.

By Wednesday night, he was out of the Angels’ starting rotation, relinquishing his regular assignment to Fraser, who was asked to pitch on three days’ rest. And that, indeed, was asking a lot.

Fraser has won twice on three days’ rest this season, but this time, he couldn’t complete five innings. Spotting the Toronto Blue Jays a 4-0 lead after 3 innings, Fraser was out of the game after 4. But because of 11 Angel hits and two George Bell errors, the Angels were able to rally and beat the Blue Jays, 7-6, before an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 25,598.

The Angels scored four runs in the fourth inning, added solo runs in the fifth and sixth, and finally broke a 6-6 tie in the eighth when Wally Joyner’s sacrifice fly brought home Johnny Ray from third base.

Greg Minton (3-1), one of three Angel relievers summoned to bail out Fraser, was the winner, pitching 1 innings. Donnie Moore followed Minton and worked a scoreless ninth inning to earn his fourth save.

Witt, meanwhile, ended up celebrating his 28th birthday in the Angels’ training room, a party he shared with an ice pack, a heating pad and team physical therapist Roger Williams.

Meeting briefly with reporters afterward, Witt said the treatment helped, and he hopes to pitch again by the weekend.

“Considering how it was yesterday, it’s probably 50% better today,” Witt said. “Hopefully, it’ll be 25% better than that tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll be pitching on Friday or Saturday.”

Realistically, Angel Manager Cookie Rojas will be happy with Sunday. With the Angels off today, Rojas has enough able-bodied starters to get him that far.

“We’re going with (Terry) Clark Friday, and if we have to, we can bring back (Chuck) Finley Saturday,” Rojas said. “After that, we hope Mike will be ready. If not, we’ll have to come up with something.”

At least, Rojas knows how to reshuffle a rotation. As rookie manager of Team Clumsy, he’s already had to replace one pitcher who wrenched his ankle fielding a grounder (Dan Petry) and another (Finley) who sprained a thumb while stumbling off the mound. Finley missed three weeks, and Petry hasn’t pitched in a month.

Now, he loses his No. 1 starter to a pair of socks.

Angel designated hitter Brian Downing, in his 11th season in Anaheim, simply shook his head when he contemplated the latest mishap.

“It’s nothing new, is it?” Downing said. “We’ve had these kind of years before, where we’re consistently losing people because of strange occurences and physical ailments.

“We had some of these little (injuries) earlier this year and really struggled through them. Now, things are starting to break down a little bit again. We have to get tougher and not fall into that rut again.”

But that rut could well be revisited if Witt is sidelined for an extended period.

“Pitching’s the name of the game,” Downing said, “especially when you’re talking about your top guy. You can always replace a rummy DH, but not your best starting pitcher.”

It definitely wasn’t easy Wednesday. Fraser, who has been the Angels’ least consistent starting pitcher, began his assignment as Witt’s replacement by surrendering singles to the first three batters he faced.

Tony Fernandez led off with a single under the glove of Angel second baseman Johnny Ray. Rance Mulliniks followed with a single to left. And when George Bell added a single up the middle, Fraser was faced with an instant 1-0 deficit.

Fraser would also throw a wild pitch, walk Fred McGriff and chat with Rojas alongside the pitching rubber before escaping the first inning behind by only a run.

He managed to hold the Blue Jays scoreless in the second inning, but then came the third --and Fraser’s obligatory home run offering.

With Kelly Gruber on second base (he singled and stole second) and Ernie Whitt on first (he walked), McGriff unloaded on a 2-and-2 pitch by Fraser. Hitting it almost as high as it was far, McGriff sent his 20th homer of 1988 well beyond the center-field fence, increasing Toronto’s lead to 4-0.

But by the grace of five Angel hits and an error by Bell in the fourth inning, Fraser left the game with one out in the fifth, in possession of a 4-4 tie.

The Angels rallied for four runs against Blue Jay starter Jimmy Key, with Dick Schofield and Devon White driving in runs with singles. Bob Boone brought home two more with a double that Bell bobbled in left field for error No. 1.

Error No. 2 enabled the Angels to break the tie in the fifth inning. Joyner scored from first base when Bell misplayed a fly ball by Tony Armas into a two-base error.

Joyner’s first of two sacrifice flies gave the Angels a 6-4 advantage after six innings.

But by the middle of the eighth inning, the game was tied, 6-6, as Toronto scored one run in the seventh on a double by McGriff and two infield outs, and another run in the eighth on three singles, the last by Gruber to score Nelson Liriano from third.

The bottom of the eighth was a virtual replay of the bottom of the sixth: Blue Jay Manager Jimy Williams ordered Chili Davis walked with a runner at third base--and both times Joyner brought in the run with a sacrifice fly.

“You got to do that,” Joyner said, defending Williams’ failed strategy. “You’ve got to play the percentages, right?”

Rojas, meanwhile, was merely impressed by the fact the Angels were able to force Williams into such late-inning maneuvering.

“It’s a credit to them,” Rojas said of his players. “Seems like we done that all year. We lost Petry and Finley and now Witt, but we’ve overcome the injuries that we’ve had. It seems like everybody excels when something like that happens.”

Practice makes perfect, as they say.

Angel Notes

When Bob Boone singled and doubled in his first two-at bats Wednesday, it raised his batting average to .293, making the 40-year-old player, at least temporarily, the top hitting starting catcher in the majors. The only other regular catcher batting better than .290 is Pittsburgh’s Mike LaValliere (.291). Boone added to his lead by beating out a grounder into the hole at shortstop before flying out in the seventh inning. Boone, a .250 career hitter, has never batted above .286 in his previous 16 seasons. . . . Chili Davis walked four times (once intentionally) in his first five at-bats, enabling him to tie the Angel club record. Many share the mark, which was last equaled by Wally Joyner on Aug. 31, 1987, also against Toronto.

By the end of the fifth inning, the Blue Jays had lost shortstop Tony Fernandez and relief pitcher Frank Wills to injuries. Fernandez left the game in the top of the fifth because of a tender left knee, giving way to Nelson Liriano. In the bottom of the fifth, Wills took Jack Howell’s line drive off his right forearm and had to leave after facing just three hitters. He was replaced by John Cerutti in the top of the sixth. . . . With catcher Darrell Miller due to come off the 15-day disabled list Friday, the Angels announced that they were reassigning catcher Doug Davis to Edmonton immediately after the game. Davis appeared in 6 games with the Angels, going hitless in 12 at-bats.

The Angels are also looking into sending second baseman Mark McLemore, currently on rehabilitative assignment in Palm Springs, to Edmonton. Angel Manager Cookie Rojas said McLemore would benefit by facing some triple-A pitcher after spending the last two weeks with Class A Palm Springs.