Wide-Eyed Lewis, Angels Beat A’s

Scott Lewis listened to the hype that surrounds the Oakland Athletics, and he saw them live up to their reputation by winning the first three games of their series against the Angels at Anaheim Stadium.

“I knew I was going to pitch against Oakland, and for the first couple days it was, ‘Wow, I’m going to pitch against Jose (Canseco), Mark McGwire and all of those guys,’ ” Lewis said, widening his blue eyes to emphasize the awe he had for the defending American League champions. “I had a couple of days of that and then I said, ‘Hey, I’m in the big leagues, too.’ ”

Lewis earned his second major league victory--and first of this season--with a poised, polished performance Thursday night. The rookie right-hander gave up five hits over seven innings and dodged trouble by getting key outs with runners in scoring position in the Angels’ 7-1 victory before 24,939 at Anaheim Stadium.

The victory was the Angels’ first at home after three losses to Oakland. The A’s had won their previous seven games.

“We needed this one,” said right fielder Dave Gallagher, who drove in the final run in the four-run seventh inning with a single that dropped amid a trio of A’s in short right field. “It was big for us. We had to stop it (their losing streak) and turn it around.”

No one had a more dramatic turnaround than Lewis. Presented an 8-2 lead last Saturday in Minnesota, he couldn’t get through the fifth inning to get credit for what should have been an easy victory. “I kind of folded up, so to speak,” he said.

For a while, it seemed he might give a repeat performance. He had a 1-0 lead after one inning when Luis Polonia walked, stole second and scored on Wally Joyner’s single to right, but that margin evaporated when shortstop Ernest Riles lined a hanging slider inches over the right-field fence for his first homer and first RBI of the season.

“It was a bad pitch. It deserved to get hit,” Lewis said.

The Angels gave him a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning off Kirk Dressendorfer (1-1), who was making his second major league start. Gary Gaetti slammed a 1-and-0 pitch barely over the left-field fence for his first home run as an Angel and the team’s first after 122 at-bats without one. The Angels increased their lead to 3-1 when Donnie Hill and Polonia sandwiched singles around Willie Wilson’s failure to catch Junior Felix’s fly to left.

“Anything that helps us win, that’s what I like,” Gaetti said of his home run. “Anything to get the guys going.”

Lewis gave up a two-out walk to Wilson and a single to Dave Henderson that put runners on first and third in the fifth inning but got Canseco to ground into a force play to end the inning. McGwire doubled to left-center with one out in the sixth and got to third on Riles’ ground out, but Lewis struck out Vance Law to defuse that threat.

“Where I made the mistake last time was that I didn’t pitch like it was a 3-1 game or a close game,” said Lewis, whose previous major league victory was an 8-2 decision over the Texas Rangers in his debut last Sept. 25. “Tonight, the game being close forced me into it.

“I got out of a couple jams. I just tried to take it one pitch at a time and make a good pitch. I made a couple of good pitches when I had to. . . . Obviously, it was a big win for the team. It’s like being in the fifth spot (in the rotation) and they’re about to sweep, it’s up to you to pull up the rear. . . . Tonight, we were in a position to be swept, and I went out with the attitude that I didn’t have anything to lose.”

So, he didn’t.

The Angels took control of the game in the seventh inning. They loaded the bases on walks to Joyner and Gaetti by rookie John Briscoe and to Hill by rookie Dana Allison, and Felix cleared the bases with a triple over Harold Baines, who played right field while Canseco nursed a sore leg and was the designated hitter.

“We got some two-out hits,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “If you look at the series, the whole series was decided basically on that. It was nice that it was our turn.”