Good Intentions Having Gone Awry, Davis Provides No Alibis for Errors

The keepers of Jumbotron, the fancy-dancy video scoreboard at Anaheim Stadium, unveiled a new-look mug shot of Angel right fielder Chili Davis Friday evening.

Gone was the friendly, beaming Davis face of a night earlier. In its place was a dazed and dour-looking Davis, a picture of unhappiness.

As it turns out, the photo went well with Friday evening’s game, a 7-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners.

This wasn’t just any loss, though. This was textbook bumbling, led by Mr. Photogenic himself, Davis, and his two seventh-inning errors. The errors helped turn a 2-1 Angel lead into a 7-2 deficit as 11 Mariner batters spent time at the plate that inning.

“Just say, I (messed) up today,� Davis said afterward.

Also say that if nothing else, they were errors filled with good intentions.

Earlier in the game, Davis had watched Mariner Ken Phelps go from first to third on a base hit to center. Phelps scored on Jim Presley’s ground ball to Jack Howell at third.

So naturally, when Phelps made it to first again in the seventh inning, Davis remembered the dash from first to third. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.

With one out, Presley lined a hit toward Davis in right. The ball skipped along the grass several times . . . and right past Davis’ glove. As Davis chased after the ball, Phelps easily found his way home while Presley slid safely into third with an honest-to-goodness single and two bonus bases.

“The ball went under my glove,� Davis said. “I saw him go first to third (earlier), and I wasn’t going to let him do that again. So I charged the ball and the ball went under my glove.�

Alibis were presented for Davis’ taking.

Was Davis still unsure of his relatively new Anaheim Stadium surroundings?

“I don’t think there’s any big adjustment to be made,� he said. “(The outfield) is big, it’s grass.�

Could he have been waiting for the ball to bounce harder off the turf? Again, no go, Davis said.

“That ball wouldn’t have come up,� he said. “I don’t know, it just went under my glove. I was as surprised as everyone else was that it got by me.�

There’s more.

Rey Quinones followed with a single to left off starter Kirk McCaskill, who had been breezing along with his best outing of date. That scored Presley, which meant the Mariners could basically thank Davis for the two runs--Phelps’ and Presley’s.

Up came Harold Reynolds, who promptly lined another single toward Davis. This one Davis kept in front of him. But it was a costly defensive play that Davis later said was unnecessary.

“The second ball I think I should have caught, and I started thinking about the first ball and got timid on it,� he said. “You can’t do that out there.�

Quinones went to third on Davis’ bobble, and Reynolds stood safely at second. By the time the inning was complete, Phelps and Mike Kingery had batted twice and the Mariners had six runs, all earned and all weighing heavily on Davis’ mind.

“You hope the guy doesn’t score, first of all,� he said of the errors. “You hope your pitcher pitches out of it. If he does score, you pretty much charge that run to you. For every run you let in, you’ve got to drive in two.�

Davis could only provide one run, a solo homer in the first inning, his third of the season, that gave the Angels a 1-0 lead. “But that’s so forgotten,� he said.

In its place, those two errors.