Snow Buries Angels With Two Homers

SAN FRANCISCO —  The Angels traded J.T. Snow to the San Francisco Giants last winter because they needed pitching and thought they could get more production from the first base position with Darin Erstad.

Snow claims he doesn’t hold a grudge, despite some harsh comments from upper management that seemed to be directed toward him, but it was hard to tell Saturday.

The two-time Gold Glove Award-winner tormented his former teammates with a pair of two-run homers to lead the Giants to a 7-3 interleague victory over the Angels before 26,200 in 3Com Park. Seattle’s loss to the Dodgers kept the Angels a game behind the Mariners in the American League West.

Snow broke a 1-1 tie when he blasted a Dennis Springer knuckleball over the center-field wall for a two-run homer in the fourth inning, and he tacked on two insurance runs when he lined a Pep Harris changeup over the wall in center in the fifth.

“It’s human nature to want to do well against your old team,” said Snow, a switch-hitter who is batting .293 with 24 homers and 88 RBIs, “but just because I switched teams doesn’t mean I have any hard feelings toward them. It’s only a coincidence that I did well against them. There’s no explanation for it.”

Actually, there is: Snow has been on a tear for the last 2 1/2 months and has feasted on American League pitching.

Nine of Snow’s homers have come in interleague games--three in 12 at-bats against the Angels--and Snow has 22 homers in his last 241 at-bats covering 67 games, a Mark McGwire-esque pace of one homer every 11 at-bats.

“Maybe I have a little bit of a mental edge, having faced these pitchers before and being familiar with them,” Snow said. “You have a good feel for how guys are going to pitch you.”

Snow hit only two home runs in his first 64 games, but his sluggish start can be traced to a hard-luck spring, when he missed a week because of flu and three more weeks after getting drilled in the left eye by a Randy Johnson fastball, which broke a facial bone and sent him to the hospital.

“I don’t want to say it wasn’t that bad, but I tried to forget about it as much as I could,” Snow said. “I felt the sooner I got back the better I would be. It was a rough moment, something I’ll never forget, but I don’t think about it now unless someone else brings it up.”

Nor does Snow harp on Angel President Tony Tavares’ shot at the underachieving 1996 Angels. Tired of a lack of intensity, Tavares lashed out at the Angels last summer when he said, “This team has too many players who look like they came from Newport Beach, where their daddies and mommies gave them everything they ever wanted.”

It wasn’t directed at anyone specifically, but the implication was there--Snow lived in Newport Beach, and though he went all-out defensively, he did not have a reputation as a hard-nosed offensive player.

“But those quotes didn’t bother me,” Snow said. “They weren’t very smart quotes, but quotes are quotes, and they don’t mean a lot to me.”

Snow has outproduced Erstad this season--the Angel first baseman is batting .305 with 13 homers and 65 RBIs--and Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi was on hand Saturday to witness Snow’s power display.

But there were no regrets. Allen Watson, the pitcher acquired for Snow, has been one of the rotation’s most reliable starters, and Erstad, who has 32 doubles and 22 stolen bases, has added an element that Snow lacks--speed.

“We got what we needed, the Giants got what they needed, it was the perfect trade because it was good for both teams,” Bavasi said. “I don’t look back.”

Neither does Snow. If he is bitter about the trade, he doesn’t show it.

“I just looked at last year as a down year for everybody,” said Snow, who slipped to .257 with 17 homers and 67 RBIs in 1996 after hitting .289 with 24 homers and 102 RBIs in ’95. “I could try to figure things out, but it’s really not worth it. We didn’t win, and good things happen when you win.”