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Friday, Aug. 25 10:05pm ET
Wise allows 3 hits through 8 1/3 innings | |||||
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- What's a 24-year-old rookie doing holding the heavy-hitting Cleveland Indians to just two singles over eight innings in the middle of a pennant race? Matt Wise continued pitching as though he didn't have a care in the world, winning his third straight start Friday night and recording a 4-1 victory for the Anaheim Angels. "I'm probably so oblivious to the pennant race, it really doesn't affect me," Wise said after allowing three hits over 8 1/3 innings. "Right now I'm just trying to help the team win every game I pitch. It's unbelievable to get an opportunity to play in the big leagues, so I want to take advantage of it." Tim Salmon homered and drove in four runs, helping the Angels beat the Indians for only the second time in their last 16 meetings. Darin Erstad went 4-for-5 in his return to the Anaheim lineup. Wise (3-1) had allowed only three baserunners before Kenny Lofton hit the first pitch of the ninth for his 12th home run. The right-hander, who struck out five and walked two, was pulled after a one-out walk to Roberto Alomar. Alomar also singled with two outs in the first, but Wise retired 18 of the next 19 batters. "I just knew I was going to try and throw low strikes, and let the guys behind me make some plays," Wise said. "I was just going to challenge Lofton and he did a good job. he got a good fat pitch and hit it in the stands. Maybe I tried to do too much and had a little lapse of concentration on that pitch." Shigetoshi Hasegawa got two outs for his seventh save. Dave Burba (11-6) allowed three runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings. It was the eighth consecutive start in which he gave up fewer than four earned runs. The Angels closed within 2½ games of Boston and Oakland for the wild card spot. Cleveland is a half-game behind the leaders. "There's almost too many teams out there to be keeping track, and you spend too much energy and effort trying to figure it out," Salmon said. "So from our standpoint we just need to focus on winning tomorrow, take it one game at a time, worry about ourselves, and just take care of business." Erstad started for the first time since Aug. 19, when he left a game in New York because of muscle spasms in the left side of his rib cage. His four singles raised his major league-leading hit total to 193. "He's locked in, man, and I hope he doesn't let go," Angels catcher Bengie Molina said. "He's an awesome player. He hustles, he dives for balls, and he gives you nine good innings every day." Erstad, in the DH spot, led off the first with a single, breaking Garret Anderson's club record of 189 hits by a left-handed batter. Salmon doubled home Erstad. Salmon made it 4-0 in the seventh, greeting Justin Speier with his 29th homer after Burba gave up Erstad's fourth single and a walk to Mo Vaughn. "I thought it was the least I could do," Salmon said. "We squandered some opportunities early and we're saying, 'Hey, Matt's pitching great for us and he should have more than a one-run lead. But the way Burba was throwing, he was making some big pitches when he had to. He was giving us a little bit of hope -- and then shutting us down." The Angels put runners at second and third in the fifth inning with singles by Kevin Stocker and Erstad, followed by Orlando Palmeiro's sacrifice bunt. Vaughn looked at a third strike for his AL-leading 135th strikeout and Salmon walked, loading the bases. But Cleveland's Omar Vizquel, trying to become the first AL shortstop to win eight consecutive Gold Gloves, grabbed Anderson's tricky one-hopper and threw him out to end the threat. Burba escaped another jam in the third when he struck out Salmon and retired Anderson on a grounder to second with runners at the corners. "I had some situations where I got out of jams and kept us in the ballgame, but I got tired at the end and I was having some problems with a blister," Burba said. "Basically, I kind of pushed the envelope. I shouldn't have gone back out there in the seventh, but I thought that I could go and get another inning." Game notesAngels SS Gary DiSarcina, who has missed most of the season after undergoing right shoulder surgery in early May, made his fourth visit to Edison Field since the surgery and serves as the ball boy down the left field line. ... After the game, the Angels optioned RHP Brian Cooper to Triple-A Edmonton as a prelude to activating closer Troy Percival on Saturday. He was on the 15-day disabled list since Aug. 5 because of tendinitis in his right elbow. ... Wise was 9-6 with a 3.69 ERA in 19 starts this season for Triple-A Edmonton before he was called up on Aug. 2. ... Erstad is nine hits shy of the Angels' single-season record of 202, set in 1970 by Alex Johnson -- the only player in the team's 40-year history to win a batting title. ... Salmon, the Angels' career home run leader with 224, needs one more to make Anaheim the first team in AL history to have four players with 30 homers in the same season. It's been done five times in the NL, twice each by the Dodgers and Rockies, and once by the Braves. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Cleveland Clubhouse Anaheim Clubhouse Angels' Erstad resumes hits-record chase after missing four games
RECAPS Baltimore 4 Tampa Bay 3
Anaheim 4
Los Angeles 3
San Francisco 16
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