Fraser Digs Deep Hole but Doesn’t Bury Angels : After Trailing, 4-0, They Rally for 7 Runs in 2 Innings to Defeat Orioles, 7-5

Eight Baltimore Orioles batted in the top of the first inning Wednesday night at Anaheim Stadium. Five of them hit safely and four of them scored.

These things can happen when Willie Fraser starts on the mound for the Angels.

The surprising thing, though, was how the Angels finished this time around. With five runs in the seventh inning and two more in the eighth, the Angels turned that 4-0 deficit into a 7-5 victory before a crowd of 21,921.

“A tremendous win,” enthused Fraser, who had reason to be enthused. Despite surrendering four runs--two coming on a home run by Jim Traber--before recording three outs, Fraser emerged unscathed, sneaking by with no decision and keeping his record at 10-10.

Credit the Angel offense with the bail-out. Through six innings, two singles by Tony Armas were all the Angels could muster against Baltimore starter Jay Tibbs. Then in the seventh inning, they sent 10 batters to the plate, eventually surfacing with a 5-4 lead.

And after the Orioles tied it in the top of the eighth, the Angels responded with two more runs in the bottom of the inning to seal the victory.

In the eighth, Armas again figured prominently. With runners on first and third and one out, Armas doubled into the left-field corner against Baltimore reliever Mark Williamson (4-6), scoring Wally Joyner for the tiebreaking run.

A bases-loaded walk to Dick Schofield scored Chili Davis with the Angels’ seventh run.

Then, the Angels turned matters over to Bryan Harvey. The rookie reliever struggled in the ninth, walking Terry Kennedy and allowing a single to Ken Gerhart, but eventually closed out the game to earn his sixth victory in 10 decisions.

“Tony Armas came through for us again,” said Angel Manager Cookie Rojas, who after platooning Armas in left field from April through July, is now pumping Armas for American League player of the month for August.

“No one else deserves it,” Rojas said. “I’m tickled to death that he’s had a hell of a year.”

A hell of a month, anyway. With three hits Wednesday, Armas finished August with a .386 average (32 for 83), which raised his overall figure to .277. He also hit 8 home runs and drove in 19 runs during the month.

“It’s nice to be playing (every day) now,” Armas said. “I’ve pulled myself up, and now I’ve got my chance to play.”

Wednesday, Armas pulled Fraser up with him. From 0-4 in the first inning to no decision after nine, Fraser made a real comeback.

This Fraser start was much like most of his others, which usually means at least two things:

--One, the opposition is going to score some runs.

--Two, the opposition will hit at least one ball over the fence.

Baltimore took care of both items in the first inning.

Joe Orsulak opened the game with a double that bounded past left fielder Jim Eppard, who was starting in place of Thad Bosley, sidelined with a sore elbow. Orsulak moved to third base when the next batter, Brady Anderson, beat out a tapper back to Fraser.

A sacrifice fly by Cal Ripken scored Orsulak with the first run. One out later, Anderson stole second and scored on Larry Sheets’ hit off third baseman Mark McLemore’s glove.

Then came the inevitable. The first pitch Fraser threw to Traber wound up in the right-field seats. Traber’s two-run home run extended Baltimore’s lead to 4-0--and extended Fraser’s major league lead in home runs allowed to 32.

With a month left on the schedule, Don Sutton’s Angel record of 38 home runs allowed in a single season is in jeopardy.

Fraser surrendered another single to Terry Kennedy before wriggling out of the first inning. He would eventually pitch 6 innings, allowing six more hits but no more runs.

“That was the key,” Fraser said. “I was able to keep the score 4-0 and gave the team a chance to tie it. If I gave up a few more runs, there was a chance we would’ve been out of it.”

The Angels rallied for five runs in the seventh, an inning launched by Johnny Ray’s leadoff home run. Joyner and Davis followed with singles, Armas loaded the bases with a fielder’s choice, and Eppard brought the Angels within 4-3 with a two-run single.

Mark Thurmond, Baltimore’s second of three relief pitchers, came on and immediately hit pinch-hitter Jack Howell with a pitch. That set the stage for Schofield’s two-run single and a 5-4 Angel advantage.

The lead wouldn’t last. Sherman Corbett served up an eighth-inning double to Ripken, and Harvey served up a run-scoring single to Sheets.

So, Armas and the Angels were forced to come back again in the bottom of the eighth. But at this, the Angels have experience. Playing catchup is often the Angel way whenever Willie Fraser starts a game.

Angel Notes

Bob Boone and Brian Downing were both free agents during the winter of 1986-87, but neither got too worked up over arbitrator George Nicolau’s ruling Wednesday that major league owners were guilty of collusion against the free agents from that off-season. Chalk it up to age. Boone is 40, Downing is closing in on 38, and neither is eager to take another possible test of the market, a la Kirk Gibson. “As far as movement (to another team) goes, it won’t have any effect on me,” Downing said. “If I was Tim Raines or something, it might be different. If I was younger, I might have some value as a free agent. I want to play one more year and I want to do it here.” Boone, who wants to play longer than that, also said he has no desire to leave the Angels. “This decision doesn’t impact me,” Boone said. “I got what I wanted (in 1987)--and that’s getting to stay with the Angels so I can end my career here. And it looks like that’s going to be realized.”

Boone, however, missed the first month of the 1987 season by failing to re-up with the Angels before the January free-agent deadline. For that, he expects to be compensated monetarily when Nicolau determines the awards for the 1986-87 free agents. “For me, personally, I’d settle for $30 million or 40 million,” Boone cracked. “Actually, how can you put a number on something like that? I don’t what the compensation might be, but I know that the way to stop (collusion) is to award punitive damages all the way around.”

Angel owner Gene Autry was a pregame visitor in Manager Cookie Rojas’ office. Upon exiting, Autry was stopped by a few reporters, who asked him about the recent rumors suggesting that Rojas would be replaced as manager after this season. “I think that’s a lot of . . . ,” Autry said angrily. “(General Managwr) Mike Port said when we first brought (Rojas) in that we’d make our minds up about next year after this season. That hasn’t changed.” NBC sportscaster Fred Roggin first aired the report that Rojas wouldn’t be retained for the 1989 season Sunday night, citing unnamed sources. Said Autry: “For a guy who’s supposed to be top newscaster to put something on the air like that without (quoting) people, I think that’s . . . I don’t understand it.”