ANGELS RISE TO CHALLENGE WITH MINTON

In the grand scheme of baseball’s long summer, they were four rather inconsequential outs. They came against Cleveland, during the middle innings, during the middle of August.

So why did they bring a crowd of reporters to the threshold of Greg Minton’s locker stall in the wake of the Angels’ 6-5 victory over the Indians Friday night?

Consider it a sign of the times.

For the first time in more than three weeks, Minton completed his relief round without allowing either:

(a) A home run;

(b) A barrage of base hits, or

(c) A game to get out of hand.

“For the first 39 games this year, I did my job,” Minton said. “In the last four, I not only didn’t do my job, I was terrible . . . I was almost out of the league after four games.”

Actually, the slump covered seven games, dating back to July 27. Since then, Minton had surrendered 10 runs and 17 hits, including three home runs. Over the course of 7 2/3 innings, that works out to an 11.74 earned-run average.

So when Minton takes the mound for the eighth time and retires all four batters he faces--striking out three of them--it’s news.

It’s news even if Minton keeps t elling the huddled mass surrounding him, “Don’t make no big deal out of this. This was only 1/3 innings.”

With those 1 1/3 innings, Minton not only gained a victory for himself, he also helped regain first place for the Angels. Coupled with Oakland’s 4-3 loss to Minnesota, Friday’s victory before 52,286 fans at Anaheim Stadium enabled the Angels to move .002 ahead of the Athletics in the American League West.

For both Minton and the Angels, it was a night of reclamation.

Minton got the call to work middle relief when Angel starter Jim Abbott required a sixth-inning bailout. Abbott had just yielded a run-scoring single to Felix Fermin, enabling the Indians to forge a 5-5 tie with two out.

Minton came on and immediately stopped the threat by striking out Brook Jacoby. Then, he completed a perfect seventh inning, striking out Mike Young and Joey Belle in the process.

At that point, Angel Manager Doug Rader turned the ball over to Bryan Harvey, who helped continue the Angel bullpen revival. Harvey recorded his 19th save by finishing two hitless innings, walking two and striking out four.

Minton (2-3) was credited with the victory. He was the pitcher of record when Claudell Washington tripled off Indian reliever Steve Olin (1-1) in the seventh and scored on a single by Johnny Ray, breaking a 5-5 tie.

It was the third hit of the night for Ray, who also hit a home run off Cleveland starter Tom Candiotti in the third inning, one out after Devon White had done the same.

Abbott, who lasted only three-plus innings in his previous start, was ragged again at the outset Friday. He had two wild pitches in the first inning, gave up five hits in the first two innings and was down, 3-0, before he recorded his fourth out of the game.

Cleveland’s Jerry Browne opened the game with a single and, two wild pitches later, was standing at third base, watching Abbott walk the Indians’ No. 2 hitter, Felix Fermin.

This was cause for concern in the Angel dugout, bringing pitching coach Marcel Lachemann to the mound for his earliest visit of the season, barely five minutes into the first inning.

Conference finished, Abbott came back to strike out Jacoby, but soon regressed.

Joe Carter and Young followed with consecutive singles, each scoring a run, to give Cleveland a 2-0 lead.

It quickly became 3-0 in the second inning. Brad Komminsk led off by tripling into the left-field corner--the ball short-hopping the fence and bounding past Angel left fielder Chili Davis--and scored on a single by Andy Allanson.

At that point, Abbott began to settle down. He retired eight of the next nine batters he faced before serving up a two-out home run to Browne in the fourth inning. He almost yielded another to Belle in the fifth, but this time, Davis got a good jump, leaping to glove the ball as it was about to clear the fence.

Abbott failed to make it out of the sixth inning, however. He gave up a two-out double to Allanson, followed by a walk to Browne and a run-scoring single by Fermin. That brought Lachemann to the mound.

On came Minton to end the inning and on went the Angels, getting Washington’s triple followed by Ray’s decisive single in the seventh.

Minton, for more than one reason, was happy to have a part in making it all happen.

“The bottom line is, I finally did my job,” Minton said. “Now, if I can keep doing it, you can take all the stuff that’s been printed in the newspapers about our bullpen and--no offense, gentlemen--shove it.”

Minton laughed as he said it. The smile, along with his old form, had finally returned, at least for one night.

Angel Notes

Dick Schofield update: The injured Angel shortstop is scheduled to have his left hand re-examined next Thursday by Dr. Norman Zemel, a hand and wrist specialist. Originally expected to be sidelined two to four weeks, Schofield said that prognosis has since been revised to three to six weeks. In the meantime, Schofield said: “The doctor said to do nothing until it heals. Right now, I’m sitting and watching a lot of baseball. But I really don’t like to watch.”

Still limited to designated-hitting duty when he’s able to play, Claudell Washington tested his left shoulder by throwing for 10 minutes before Friday’s game. “It feels good,” Washington reported.

They stoop to conquer (almost): The idea was to treat hot-foot master Bert Blyleven to a little of his own medicine, which, certainly, has been overdue. But two attempts were foiled Friday when an Angel batboy and Cleveland’s Joe Carter both failed to ambush Blyleven while he was conducting a television interview. The bat boy went first, but Blyleven spotted the sneak attack in progress and turned around to stare down the perpetrator. Carter came closer, crawling on all fours, from batting cage to Angel dugout, where Blyleven was standing. Carter then lit a match and touched it to a shoelace, but the flame didn’t take. As Carter lit another match, Blyleven, without looking, took his right foot and nonchalantly kicked dirt in Carter’s face.