Angels’ White Has Been Earning Rave Reviews

As far as midseason report cards for a rookie go, give Devon White four A’s.

Those would be for Hitting, Speed, Defense and Aggressiveness.

True, he may not be getting the headlines or home runs that Oakland A’s sensation Mark McGwire is, but the Angels will take the 24-year-old outfielder’s performance in his 88 games just the same, thank you.

White delighted an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 42,682 to one of his typical straight-A performances Sunday in a 5-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers. He had two hits to bring his team-leading total to 104 and his team-leading average to .286; scored two runs to tie Brian Downing for the team lead with 65; stole two bases to bring his total to 20, and threw catcher Matt Nokes out at the plate.

With an ice bag tied around his “tired” right shoulder in the dressing room, the soft-spoken White dismissed his first-half performance simply by saying, “I haven’t had a year in the minors like I’m currently having.”

White’s defense came into play in the second inning, when he fielded Tom Brookens’ single cleanly and threw out Nokes. It was the third time this season White has thrown a runner out at the plate.

“The ball was hit pretty hard, I knew he was running, and all I had to do was throw a strike to (Bob) Boone,” White said. It was a high strike, but it came on the fly and cut down the sli1684631143scoreless tie.

White got the first of his two doubles in the fourth inning by hitting a Frank Tanana fastball away to right-center. When Pat Sheridan’s throw got away from shortstop Jim Walewander at second base, White tried for third.

“We’re told to be aggressive,” White said, “but I thought the ball had rolled further than it did.”

Tanana scooped up the loose ball and fired it to Brookens to nip White.

“I feel I am aggressive, but I also know you never get thrown out at third base for the final out. No one had to tell me I made a mistake,” White said.

White’s double in the seventh drove in Downing, who had tripled, with the Angels’ fourth run. Tanana tried to get White with a curveball down and in, but White drove it just inside third base for his 53rd RBI of the season. He scored one out later on Doug DeCinces’ single.

White’s two-hit performance was his second in two games and his 29th multiple-hit game of the season. It also provided evidence that he was over a mini-slump in which, before Saturday night’s game, he had only four hits in 38 at-bats.

“I don’t call that a slump,” White protested mildly. “I just wasn’t seeing the ball too well, got over-anxious and began guessing at the pitches. I didn’t get alarmed because I’ve learned you just have got to keep swinging away.”

By swinging away, White seems certain to become the first rookie in Angel history to hit 20 home runs (he has 17) and record 20 steals in a single season. Only six Angels have done that, the last being Don Baylor in 1982.

A natural right-handed hitter, White didn’t start switch-hitting until 1981, his first season as a pro, at Idaho Falls. Ten of his 17 major league homers have come from the left side of the plate.

“I did it (began switch-hitting) because I felt it would help me become a more consistent hitter,” White said.

However, for the next two days, White doesn’t plan to pick up a bat.

“I’ll watch the All-Star Game Tuesday night, but beyond that, no baseball,” he said. “I’m really tired and just plan to lay back and relax.

“All I want to try to do in the second half is go out and play as well as I have in the first half.”