Offense Gets the Job Done as Bullpen Bombs Again

ANAHEIM —  The chant already has been heard at Anaheim Stadium.

“We want Hill, we want Hill.”

With any more relief like the Angels have been getting lately--or more precisely, with any less relief--it could become a standard.

Donnie Hill, the Angels’ jack-of-all-positions, pitched an inning of emergency relief in a disastrous 20-7 loss Sunday to the Milwaukee Brewers in a game Bert Blyleven started.

Hill didn’t allow a hit.

The Angel bullpen was called on again Saturday night, this time when Blyleven left with a 3-1 lead over Toronto after five innings at Anaheim Stadium. And once again, it was bye-bye Bert, bye-bye lead.

For a while, it looked like bye-bye ballgame, until Brian Downing won it, 8-7, with his second homer of the game.

Scott Bailes followed Blyleven on Saturday, giving up a run in two-thirds of an inning.

Which was better than what he accomplished Sunday, when he gave up a run in a third of an inning.

Willie Fraser followed Bailes, and gave up two runs in one inning. Cliff Young came next, a left-hander making his major league debut. He was charged with two runs in his one inning, although both Manager Doug Rader and pitching coach Marcel Lachemann said they were pleased with his performance.

Bryan Harvey was next, and he wasn’t spared--one inning, three hits, three walks, one run--the tying run in the ninth inning.

When his last walk loaded the bases with the score tied in the ninth, he was done.

Can you say collapse?

Enter Mark Eichhorn, pitcher No. 6. He was just in time to earn the victory, his first of the season.

If not for an extraordinary six-home run output by the Angel offense, the game wouldn’t have been close.

“We made some good defensive plays today,” Lachemann said. “We did a lot of things a team has to do to win. Today it wasn’t pitching.”

Bailes talked about his recent outings earlier in the week, calling it “the worst stretch I’ve ever had in my life.”

It might also be the result of knowing his spot on the team is precarious, he and Lachemann said.

Harvey, who recently went home after his father suffered a heart attack, said he felt “out of sync” after the time away.

Becasue of the All-Star break and two complete games by the starters in the past four days, not much has been asked of the bullpen lately.

Not much asked, and not much given.