Angels Step Right Into the Fray

The Angels are billing Edison Field as “the Ultimate Playground,” but the remodeled stadium will look more like the Ultimate Dark Alley this week, complete with imposing figures wielding baseball bats.

The New York Yankees, sporting one of baseball’s most prolific lineups, are in town for tonight’s season opener and Thursday night’s game, and they’ll be followed by the equally offensive Cleveland Indians, who visit Anaheim for a three-game series beginning Friday night.

Angel pitchers may get a slight breather when the Boston Red Sox arrive for a three-game series beginning Monday, but Angel hitters won’t: Pedro Martinez, the Red Sox ace and one of baseball’s best pitchers, is scheduled to start Monday night.

Leave it to left-hander Chuck Finley, who has drawn the opening-night assignment against the Yankees, to deliver the most succinct summation of the team’s first home stand: “Let’s get ready to rummmmble!”

The battle royale won’t end in Anaheim, though. The Angels’ first trip features three games at Cleveland and three at New York, meaning 11 of the Angels’ first 14 games will be against teams that are favored to win the American League East and Central divisions, respectively.

“We’ll find out where we’re at real quick,” Finley said. “But I’m sure the way we look at New York, Cleveland and Boston is the way they look at us, that they’re going to be playing a very good team.”

This signals quite an attitude shift for the Angels, who began 1997 with a similar schedule--10 of their first 12 games were against the Yankees and Indians--but with hardly the same bravado.

It was Manager Terry Collins’ first year in Anaheim, and the Angels were an unknown commodity, rife with pitching injuries, gaping holes in the lineup and unsure whether Collins’ new aggressive offensive approach would fly.

The Angels started 6-6 and spent most of the summer near the top of the AL West standings before fading in September, after losing Finley and catcher Todd Greene to season-ending wrist injuries and second baseman Tony Phillips to a drug suspension in August.

There will be two notable absences for the Angels tonight. Greene, who is recovering from shoulder surgery, and second baseman Randy Velarde, who is trying to rebound from elbow reconstruction surgery, are on the disabled list.

But the Angels still say they’re better armed with a sound rotation of Finley, Ken Hill, Jack McDowell, Allen Watson and Jason Dickson, and more powerful with the addition of designated hitter Cecil Fielder.

“We have confidence that we can compete all year long, whereas before there have always been questions,” closer Troy Percival said. “I don’t think there’s any rotation in baseball that would dominate this one, as far as having gamers.

“These guys will suck it up and pitch innings. They may give up three or four runs in the first inning but they’ll still go seven, and that will help our bullpen. We also have another power hitter, which is what we needed.”

They’ll need all the power they can muster to stick with the Yankees and Indians. New York features Chuck Knoblauch and Derek Jeter at the top of the order, followed by sluggers Paul O’Neill, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez and ex-Angel Chili Davis.

Against right-handers, the Yankees will follow Knoblauch and Jeter with five left-handed batters: O’Neill, Williams, Martinez, Davis and Darryl Strawberry. Scott Brosius, a right-handed hitter, and left-handed Jorge Posada round out the order. Posada hit .432 this spring.

Cleveland also combines speed and power with Kenny Lofton, David Justice, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Geronimo Berroa, Travis Fryman and Sandy Alomar.

How lethal are the Indians? Alomar, who hit .324 with 21 homers and 83 RBIs in 1997 and hit two homers in last year’s World Series, will bat eighth.

“That’s like the 1927 Yankees when you start throwing guys like that at the bottom of the order,” Finley said. “You look up in the middle of the season and their No. 9 hitter has 15 jacks and you’re thinking, ‘C’mon, what is this?’

“But everyone has a weakness, and you have to expose it. There aren’t a lot of holes in any lineups anymore, especially in this league, but if you make pitches you can get them out.”

That’s what the Red Sox were figuring when they signed Martinez, the 1997 National League Cy Young Award winner, for $75 million this winter. Many National League pitchers have trouble adjusting to the tight AL strike zone and the heavier emphasis on offense, but if any pitcher can adapt, it’s this right-hander.

Martinez went 17-8 with a 1.90 earned-run average for Montreal last season, striking out 305 in 241 1/3 innings, and he went 2-2 with a 3.25 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings for Boston this spring.

He’ll start in the Red Sox’s opener at Oakland tonight, and his next scheduled turn will be Monday night in Anaheim.

“I don’t know what kind of shape he’s in,” Collins said, “but it’s probably better to face him earlier than later.”