Tempers, Angels Heat Up in Cleveland : Bud Black Beanings Spark Melee and 10-6 Victory Over Indians

CLEVELAND — It was hot, 92-degrees-with-no-breeze hot. It was humid, the kind of humid where your throat stings and your jersey clings. It was Cleveland.

In other words, it was an ideal night for a fight.

And the bell rang in the top of the fourth inning Friday, with the Angels on their way to a 10-6 victory over the Cleveland Indians at Municipal Stadium. One Angel, Jack Howell, had already fallen, beaned by a Bud Black fastball and escorted to a nearby hospital, when Black hit Devon White in the left knee with another pitch. If neither pitch was intentional, Black had badly lost his control--with both teams’ benches about to do the same.

White dropped his bat and stepped toward Black. Black stepped toward White. White yelled something, and soon, Cleveland catcher Andy Allanson was climbing all over White’s back.

That did it. Within seconds, Cookie Rojas, the Angels’ 49-year-old manager, was charging Black, giving away 18 years, 4 inches and 15 pounds. Fortunately for Rojas, the umpiring crew intervened and kept the two separated.

Elsewhere, there was chaos. Both dugouts emptied, with most of the action centered around a pair of antagonists: White-Allanson and Brian Downing-Mel Hall.

Hall had grabbed Downing from behind, and Downing told him he didn’t exactly care for it. “I’m not out there to hurt anybody, but I don’t believe in grabbing guys,” Downing said. “That leaves you too open for a sucker punch. I told him, ‘Let me go . . . or let’s go.’ ”

Hall stayed put and, basically, he and Downing occupied the time by gripping each other’s jersey. Down by the first-base line, however, the action grew more interesting.

White and Allanson had been separated and pushed to neutral corners, the fight’s spark seemingly defused. Then, suddenly, Allanson emerged from the Indian dugout, face flushed and legs churning toward White.

Round 2 began. White floated like a butterfly and brandished his fists, but teammates blunted his attack. Likewise, Cleveland relief pitcher Doug Jones grabbed Allanson and served as peacemaker, forcing a retreat and enabling the umpires to regain control.

Somewhat surprisingly, no one was ejected, and Black received no warning from plate umpire Larry Young. But Black soon found himself out of the game one batter later when he hit that batter, Johnny Ray, in the knee with another pitch.

For those keeping score, that’s three hit batters in four at-bats (Gus Polidor grounded to short after Howell’s beaning), earning Black a share of the major league single-inning record. Not wanting to go for four, Cleveland Manager Doc Edwards immediately removed Black.

Around the Angel clubhouse, the question was asked again and again: Can a pitcher hit three batters in one inning unintentionally ?

“I don’t think Black tried to hit any of them,” Angel right fielder Chili Davis said. “Two batters got hit in the knee. If you’re mad and you’re going to hit somebody, you’re going to hit them as hard as you can.

“As long as neither (White nor Ray) was hit in the head, I can’t say it was intentional. It was just bad timing . . . Hell, he hit Johnny Ray with the bases loaded. That’s an RBI.”

Howell, however, was hit in the head, a fastball to the helmet’s right ear flap. He had to be helped off the field and driven to Lutheran Medical Center, where an examination indicated that Howell was not seriously hurt.

“I’ve got a pretty good headache,” Howell said upon returning from the hospital. “And I’ve got a knot on my head. But it could’ve been a lot worse.”

Howell said Black phoned him--”To see how I was doing”--and Black insisted the pitch had merely gotten away from him.

“It was emphatically unintentional,” Black said. “It was a fastball inside that just exploded up in the strike zone . . . I’m not going to throw at him with the score 3-0 in the fourth inning.”

Still, White called Howell’s beaning the incident “that sparked the whole thing. Whether it was intentional or not, you can end someone’s life or career just like that.”

After some deliberation, White came to an agreement with Davis on the pitch that hit White in the knee--that it was unintentional.

“My first intention was just to react and go out to the mound,” White said. “I was pretty upset about Jack Howell getting hit in the head and then he hits me in the knee cap.

“But then I realized he hit me with a slider or a curveball. And that just kind of clicked in my mind, that he wasn’t throwing at me. So I started to walk to first base.”

So what prompted the melee?

White blamed Allanson.

“Black didn’t say anything to me,” White said. “But then it looked like he was walking toward me--and I’m not going to back down from anybody. That’s when Allanson tackled me and the umpire (Young).”

Edwards said Allanson was simply protecting his pitcher after he heard White yell at Black.

“I heard White holler at Bud, ‘You didn’t have to do that,’ ” Edwards said. “If I’m catching and I hear that, I know what I’ve got to do.”

So did Allanson.

“My job is to keep (White) from going to the mound,” Allanson said.

After White and Allanson were disengaged and calm was all but restored, why did Allanson make a second charge at White?

“I thought it was the thing to do at the time,” Allanson said, adding with a smile, “I’d gone back to the dugout to get a new chest protector and a drink of water.”

White said Allanson acted “like a crazy man. But he’s not crazy. He hasn’t seen crazy yet. He was all talk. He had a shot at me and he didn’t do anything.”

Rojas refused to answer questions about his part in the fracas--or any part of the fracas, for that matter.

“I don’t want to make any comments on that,” he said tersely. “If you want to talk about the game, we’ll talk about the game.”

About the game:

The Angels led, 3-0, at the time Black began his plunking spree. By the time he left, the Angels had two more runs in and the bases still loaded.

Cleveland reliever Jon Perlman replaced Black and immediately cleared the bases, yielding a three-run double to Wally Joyner. Before the inning was through, Tony Armas would add a two-run double, Bob Boone would contribute a run-scoring single and the Angels would lead, 10-0.

The Indians, and the heat, eventually wore down Angel starter and winner Kirk McCaskill (6-5), who surrendered four runs in the seventh inning and turned the game over to Donnie Moore in the eighth. Moore struggled, too, yielding a solo run in the eighth and another in the ninth while loading the bases.

At that point, Rojas had to summon Bryan Harvey to retire Joe Carter, representing the tying run, on a dribbler back to the mound.

It wasn’t nearly as easy as it should have been for the Angels, but Davis gave it his seal of approval, considering the events of the fourth inning.

“I’ll tell you what, this team showed me a lot of character tonight,” Davis said. “After the fight, (the Indians) didn’t get anybody out. It was 10-0 in a hurry. I like that.

“Get mad and take it out on the baseball. (Forget) having fun. Getting mad and winning--that’s what fun is.”

So that’s what you can do for fun in Cleveland.

Angel Notes

Only the Angels could take the simple matter of placing a backup catcher on the disabled list and turn it into controversy. Friday afternoon, the Angels announced that they were putting Darrell Miller on the 15-day disabled list because of strained knee ligaments and recalling Edmonton catcher Doug Davis, but the real story began Thursday. The scene was set by Manager Cookie Rojas’ heated dugout conversation with Miller, where Rojas apparently told Miller of the club’s imminent decision after a Cleveland doctor examined the catcher’s knee. But when questioned by reporters, Rojas never mentioned the examination--”He should see a doctor when we get home,” was all he said--and claimed Miller could play “if we need him.”

The Angels, however, were calling Davis and instructing him to fly to Cleveland in time for Friday’s game. Friday, Rojas acknowledged that Miller had indeed seen a doctor and that there indeed was ligament damage but denied any decision had been made Thursday. “Mr. Miller was not on the DL yesterday; today he is,” Rojas told reporters. “Today we called up Doug Davis. If you get some other information from someone else, write it.” All right. So reporters went to Davis. Davis said he was told to fly to Cleveland “last (Thursday) night after the game in Portland. My triple-A manager told me I was going to the big leagues. I caught a 6:40 flight in the morning.”

There were more questions for Rojas, who grew testier with each answer. Could Miller really have played Thursday, as Rojas had stated, despite damaged knee ligaments? “If Boonie (Bob Boone) has a broken bone, who was I going to have catch--Moose Stubing?” Rojas snapped. “I’m not going to play a man with a bad knee behind the plate and risk a collision and have him screw up his knee for the rest of the season.” And what did Miller have to say about all this? “No comment,” said Miller as he brushed past reporters. “I’m on the DL. You already know everything. Period.”

Davis made his major league debut in the fourth inning Friday--but not as a catcher. After Bud Black beaned Jack Howell, forcing Howell’s removal from the game, Davis was called upon to replace him at third base. Davis last played third base for double-A Midland, Tex., in 1987, something he did just twice. Rojas’ reason was shortstop Dick Schofield’s separated right shoulder, an injury the Angels are reporting as “a slight separation. “Schofield couldn’t play, and I have no one else to play third,” Rojas said. “I asked Schofield, and he said (the shoulder) bothered him too much to throw.” Rojas said Schofield can play “when he tells me he can.” Of course, that’s something we’ve heard before . . . Pitcher Dan Petry received an anti-inflammatory injection in his right ankle and was sent to Anaheim. Petry will have nearly a week to rest the ankle before the Angels open a 13-game homestand next Thursday.