White Is Becoming a Leading Man : Filling In at Top of the Order, He Is Sparking the Angels

Maybe it was the weather, but something happened to Devon White in the brutal humidity and heat of Cleveland last weekend.

White’s swing began to get smoother and he began to feel a tad more comfortable at the plate during the Angels’ four-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians.

He had six hits, two home runs and three RBIs and scored seven runs. All of this boosted White out of the hitting doldrums and contributed heavily to the Angels’ sweep. His homer in Friday’s 10-6 win over the Indians was his first since June 21 and only his sixth of the season.

Thursday night, White appeared unfazed by the three-day All-Star break, continuing his hot hitting streak with two RBI singles. His hits, which raised his RBI total to 23, helped the Angels to their sixth consecutive win, this one a 2-0 decision over the Detroit Tigers in Anaheim Stadium.

All of which is grounds for considerable elation, not to mention relief, for White, who raised his batting average five points to .237 Thursday.

One day not long after White came off the disabled list in June, he was in the supermarket and a man approached him and asked him, “What’s wrong with the California Angels?”

White, who was on the disabled list with torn cartilage in his knee from May 6 to June 10, could only offer a shrug as an answer.

That was the nadir in what has been, until recently, a frustrating season for White.

It took awhile, but White appears to have found a groove.

“He’s off to a hell of a start (in the second half),” Angel Manager Cookie Rojas said. “It’s hard to come back when you lay off for six weeks like he did. (But) now he’s more relaxed and playing a lot better.”

What’s unusual, too, is that White is doing it from an odd position in the batting order. He had been hitting in the No. 6 or 7 spot since he returned to action, but Rojas inserted him as the leadoff hitter for the first game in Cleveland a week ago because Dick Schofield was out with a separated shoulder.

Schofield, who missed the Cleveland series, returned Thursday night, but White remained in the leadoff position.

White is thought to be anything but the prototypical leadoff hitter. He said so himself after Thursday’s win.

“I don’t think I’m a first hitter,” he said. “I know I don’t walk enough and try to hit the ball over the fence all the time.

“But until we get a leadoff hitter, I’m there. If it makes the the team win so be it.”

In the third, White came up with one out and Bob Boone, who led off with a double and went to third on a ground out, in scoring position. White got down, 0 and 2, to Tiger starter Jack Morris.

“I fouled off a couple of good fork balls,” White said. “Then he threw me a fastball and jammed me. I just tried to put it in play.”

He managed to slap the ball into center field, knocking in Boone.

As it turned out, it was the only run the Angels needed against Morris, who lost to the Angels for the second start in a row and fell to 7-10.

Morris hadn’t pitched since the Angels beat him, 10-4, July 3. Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson, hoping the rest would do him some good, had Morris skip a start.

But White, faced with a similar situation in the fifth inning, singled off Morris again, driving in Jack Howell from third with two outs, for a 2-0 lead.

“I can’t speak for the team, but for myself it’s just a better feeling knowing we’re beating some good people,” White said. “Now we’re showing we can play. We know we’re not a last-place team.”