With Ray Sidelined, Angels Fall to Chicago

All spring long, Angels Johnny Ray and Mark McLemore waged a gallant competition for the right to be first at second base. Ray, the incumbent, won the job in a photo finish, but for lack of a sound left wrist, he wasn’t able to hold it for long.

To the victor, the spoils were spoiled after just two days.

Thursday night, as the Angels were losing to the Chicago White Sox, 3-2, before 20,667 fans at Anaheim Stadium, Ray was placed on the 15-day disabled list and McLemore was recalled from triple-A Edmonton in a rapid reversal of last season’s plot twist at second base.

In 1988, it was McLemore who relinquished the starting position to Ray after undergoing surgery to remove a clotted vein from his right arm. But first, McLemore had been able to retain the job for a month.

This year, Ray didn’t last a three-game series, begging out of the lineup after a pair of painful starts against the White Sox.

“It’s tendinitis, to a degree,” Angel Manager Doug Rader reported. “It started up in spring training, but as we went along, it kept getting better. Then, once we got here, it really started bothering him.”

Ray went 0 for 9 at the plate and committed two errors in the field as he attempted to play with a tightly bandaged wrist.

“After every at-bat (Wednesday night), he’d come back with a heavier and heavier wrap on it,” Rader said. “You could see he was in a lot of pain.”

Thursday, Ray had the wrist examined by Angel team physician Dr. Lewis Yocum, who diagnosed the injury as a sprain and placed Ray’s left arm in a splint. Ray will wear the splint for three to seven days.

Thus, McLemore will be back tonight, a lot sooner than he had expected after he received word of his demotion during last weekend’s Freeway Series. He will be given a second chance at the position he thought he had earned all along.

“I did well enough to start for anybody, except for maybe the Cubs,” McLemore said before departing. Ryne Sandberg, perennial National League All-Star, starts at second base for the Chicago Cubs.

Thursday night, with Ray unavailable and McLemore in Colorado Springs, Colo., where Edmonton opens its season tonight, Rader had to field a patchwork lineup. He started utilityman Glenn Hoffman at second base and had third baseman Jack Howell hit second in the batting order, Ray’s customary slot.

Hoffman fared well in his Angel debut, doubling, walking and scoring a run in three at-bats, but Howell went 1 for 5 and flied out with Dick Schofield on second base with one out in the ninth.

When Devon White followed with a strikeout against Chicago reliever Donn Pall, the Angels had lost for the second time in three games, and another Angel debut, this by Bert Blyleven, had been spoiled.

Making his first Angel start on his 38th birthday, Blyleven labored to a five-inning no-decision, leaving after throwing 91 pitches in a 2-2 tie. Blyleven allowed six hits and two walks--and, not surprisingly, two home runs. The man who made major league history by serving up 50 home runs with Minnesota in 1986 opened his Angel career by yielding solo shots to Carlton Fisk in the second inning and Ivan Calderon in the fifth.

Angel reliever Willie Fraser kept the game tied, 2-2, through seven innings and might have proceeded further, had it not been for a wide throw by Schofield, the Angels’ shortstop, in the eighth.

With two out and Chicago’s Greg Walker on first base after being hit by a Fraser pitch, Ron Kittle doubled to left field.

Walker, trying to score on the play, got a break when Schofield caught left fielder Chili Davis’ relay on the grass fringe behind third base and fired a wide throw to catcher Lance Parrish. The ball beat Walker to the plate, but because it was off line, Walker was able to beat Parrish’s lunging tag to score the decisive run.

“I thought he was going to be out,” Rader said.

So did Schofield.

“I think I should’ve had him,” Schofield said. “I just turned around and threw it. If it had been on line, he would’ve been out.”

Fraser, on his way to his first defeat of the season, tried to shrug off Schofield’s misfire.

“It looked to me like we had a good chance,” Fraser said, “but you can’t blame Schoey. I shouldn’t have given up the double. We’re all human.”

Humans make mistakes. Humans also get hurt. When both occurrences happened to the Angels Thursday night, Rader tried to be as optimistic as humanly possible.

His reaction to the Ray prognosis?

“My reaction is: I’m glad we have Mark McLemore,” Rader said. “That was (Angel Vice President Mike Port’s) stance all along--having two good second basemen beats the alternative.

“And he sure was right.”

Angel Notes

The Angels held a press conference for Jim Abbott Thursday and then cut off interviews until Saturday, when he makes his first major league start against the Seattle Mariners. The most interesting quote came when Abbott was asked if his presence in the rotation could be considered a publicity stunt. “I don’t think it is,” Abbott replied. “I hope I have a vote in it. There are people in the Angel organization who are a little bit leery of criticism, and if my pitching at this level would be seen as a publicity stunt, they’d be wide open to criticism. I don’t think there are people here who would want to subject themselves to that so quickly. I might agree if I was 0-5 in the minors somewhere and the Angels were in dead last come July. But I really feel like I earned a spot on this team. . . . If you haven’t been around our spring training, you might feel like it was a publicity stunt. And if you have, and you still feel that way, I think you’re wrong, and you’re entitled to your own opinion.”