Splish, Splash: Orioles Sink Angels, 8-7

BALTIMORE — Question: What’s the only thing worse than a game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Angels in the rain?

Answer: Two of them, which is the grim prospect for today.

Heaven help us, unlike Wednesday night, when the skies opened just enough to let a little more rain into the lives of the teams with the worst records in the American League--but not enough to force a second consecutive postponement.

So, the Angels and the Orioles braved the elements, and a Memorial Stadium crowd of 14,109 braved the consequences--culminating in a nine-inning embarrassment finally won by the Orioles, 8-7, only because the rules of baseball demand a winner.

This is what can happen when the Orioles (6-31), off to the worst start in major league history, and the Angels (14-24), falling fast, get placed together on a wet track :

--Mike Witt, the alleged ace of the Angel pitching staff, surrenders 7 runs on 3 hits and leaves trailing, 8-2, after 6 innings.

--Angel third baseman Jack Howell starts a 5-run Baltimore sixth inning--equaling the Orioles’ biggest single-inning outburst of 1988--by throwing a ball away, and Angel outfielders Chili Davis and Tony Armas extend it by turning a shallow fly by Billy Ripken into a three-run, slip-and-slide double.

--Angel Manager Cookie Rojas adds to the sixth-inning confusion by commanding Witt to walk both Eddie Murray and Jim Dwyer intentionally, the fifth and sixth Orioles to receive intentional passes this season. Both, of course, score.

--The Angels rally for 3 runs in the top of the eighth and have the bases loaded with no outs--only to have Howell strike out, Armas foul out and Butch Wynegar pop out in succession.

--Brian Downing opens the ninth inning with a triple into the pond in the right-field corner . . . and then needs two singles to score. The first, a bloop off the bat of Mark McLemore, fell in only when Baltimore third baseman Rick Schu got his legs tangled on the play and fell--splat--into the mud. Downing had to hold at third and wait for Wally Joyner’s single before coming home.

--The Angels leave the tying run at second base when Johnny Ray’s shallow fly to center field holds up long enough for Fred Lynn, splashing through the grass, to make a basket catch for the merciful final out.

Elrod Hendricks, the Baltimore bullpen coach serving as interim manager while Frank Robinson is hospitalized for a ruptured disk, shook his head and said, “Man, I thought I suffered in the bullpen.”

Joyner, the potential Angel tying run left stranded, said he was in a state of “unbelief,” adding: “That’s different than disbelief. Unbelief is when you’ve never seen anything like it. What’s going on with us are things nobody has ever seen before.”

Downing, a major league veteran of 15 years, 11 of them with the Angels, offered the perspective of experience.

“I didn’t see anything unbelievable out there,” said Downing, who added in the next breath: “I’ve been through some miserable years here.

“When two massively struggling teams get together, that’s what you expect.”

And now, because of Tuesday’s rainout, these two teams are scheduled to play twice today.

Things somehow manage to keep worsening for the Angels, who were hoping to get well here after losing 10 of their last 14 games. By the end of the first inning, they trailed baseball’s most renowned losers, 2-0, after Witt (1-5) walked two of the first three batters he faced, delivered two wild pitches and served up an RBI single to Larry Sheets, a .188 hitter.

But that was nothing compared to the sixth inning.

Witt began this one by walking Lynn and then getting Cal Ripken to hit a chopper to Howell at third base. Running in to glove the ball, Howell had little chance of throwing out Ripken at first, but tried anyway--heaving the ball away for an error that moved Lynn to third and Ripken to second.

With first base open, Rojas then instructed Witt to walk Murray, loading the bases with no outs. OK, Murray is batting .228 but he is the Baltimore cleanup hitter and he took a six-game hitting streak into Wednesday’s game. No real damage is done when the next batter, Sheets, follows with a run-scoring grounder to second.

But that left first base open again. And Rojas had Witt issue an intentional walk again--this time to Dwyer, who was 0 for 8 for the season after his recent return from the disabled list.

That brought up Mickey Tettleton with the bases loaded, and when Witt walked him, that forced in another run. One out later, Billy Ripken launched a high fly to shallow right field . . . and the real fun began.

Davis, a problematic fielder on the driest of grounds, came sloshing in and arrived just in time to let the ball drop. Armas, the Angel center fielder, backed up the play the same way--letting the ball splash past him.

By the time Armas had at last beaten the ball into submission, the bases were cleared and the Orioles led, 8-2.

When a reporter tried to ask Downing about the strategy behind those walks, Downing grinned, shook his finger at the questioner and said, “Ooooh . . . I’ve played too long to fall into that one. I’m just one of the struggling 24. I don’t make those decisions. That one just didn’t work out.”

Rojas, who does make those decisions, refused to discuss the walks--or anything else--afterward.

Making a quick break for the clubhouse door, Rojas told a reporter, “You saw the game. Write what you saw.”

Rojas then left for the team bus, not to return until today’s twi-night doubleheader between these same floundering teams, on the same wet field.

Angel Notes

Everything is relative, of course, especially considering the way the Angels are going, but Wally Joyner raised a few eyebrows with this assessment of the Orioles: “Baltimore’s got a good team. They’ve played well, they’ve got some great ballplayers. They just fell into a rut early in the year.” Some rut. Before Wednesday, this group of Orioles had been outscored, 209 to 90; had scored two or fewer runs in 20 games, and had used 34 different players, including eight leadoff hitters and eight starting pitchers. They haven’t lifted the team batting average above .217 all season. They’ve also had three managers, including Elrod Hendricks, which means the Orioles are averaging two victories per manager.

Mike Witt established a career high by walking eight batters in his 6 innings, although two were intentional. With Manager Cookie Rojas not around to answer questions, catcher Bob Boone was asked about those intentional walks. “It doesn’t matter what I think,” Boone said. “If we get the out in right field (Billy Ripken’s bloop double), we’re out of the inning.” Added Joyner on the same subject: “I think (the intentional walks) were fine. One was to Eddie Murray. He hits pretty well. Then, (Jim) Dwyer, who’s killed us in the past, and that gets us to (.133-hitting Mickey) Tettleton. I thought it was the perfect thing to do.”