BASEBALL : Angels’ Best Is Yet to Come: Big 3 Pitchers

As Manager Buck Rodgers continues to manufacture runs with mirrors named Junior Felix and Rene Gonzales, and as he continues to hope veterans Gary Gaetti and Von Hayes will return from career furloughs, he remains certain of this:

In the context of 162 games, the Angels will remain competitive and a contender only if those big three left-handers--Chuck Finley, Jim Abbott and Mark Langston--retain and regain a significant measure of last year’s 55-victory effectiveness.

“They’re the A element, they set the tone,” Rodgers said Wednesday, as his surprising team ended a 5-2 home stand with a 7-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers to take an 18-15 record on a trip that may determine if all of this is for real.

“We have a chance to show everyone what the California Angels are all about,” he said of a trip that begins Friday night against Roger Clemens and the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park, moves Monday to the Bronx Zoo that is Yankee Stadium and concludes in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which has become, Rodgers said, a “death trap” for Baltimore Oriole opponents.

It begins with Abbott facing Clemens, and Rodgers confident his big three are “ready to make their push,” ready to establish an element of psychological intimidation as they did last year, or as Abbott said Wednesday, “I don’t think anybody is ever happy to see us come in.”

Said Rodgers: “We’ve got by milking Finley through the equivalent of spring training, we’ve got by losing Langston for a start with his hip injury and we’ve gone through a span of not scoring for Abbott. The fact that we’re still three games over .500 with all of that has to be a positive for the club.”

Has to be, Rodgers said, because he is confident that Finley, Langston and Abbott, who have only six of the Angels’ 18 victories, are ready to begin contributing at a far greater percentage.

That process may have started in the home-stand finale, when Finley threw a 1992 high of 109 pitches in his fifth start of a season delayed by recovery from toe surgery. It was the last time he will work with a pitch limit--which he exceeded by nine.

“It was his last day of spring training,” Rodgers said. “I’m not worried about his toe or his arm anymore. He’s there.”

Not quite, according to Finley. He said he was 85% of the pitcher who was 18-9 last year but added, “I can win consistently with the stuff I took out there today.”

He went 5 2/3 innings, striking out eight and giving up two solo homers among five hits. His mainstay forkball was “real good,” Rodgers said, and Finley added, “My velocity has never varied a couple miles. My arm strength is coming. My toe feels fine. I’m about there. It comes down to finding some consistent rhythm now.”

Finley is 1-1 with a 3.51 earned-run average. Abbott, 18-11 last year, is 2-4 despite a 2.44 ERA. Langston, 19-8 in ‘91, is 3-1 despite a 5.94 ERA.

Abbott reflected on the Finley and Langston injuries and said they may prove a blessing in disguise in that both may be stronger down the stretch because of the innings they have missed in the first month.

“Those two can only improve, and we all know how good they can be,” Abbott said. “The fact that other guys have picked us up, and now Chuck and Mark are coming into their own, has got to be a good sign for the team.”

Indeed, Rodgers agreed, but he doesn’t want his “A” element to feel that it has to carry the load. The key, he said, is consistency and contribution from the fourth and fifth starters--at this point Julio Valera and a choice from among Joe Grahe, Don Robinson and, perhaps, Bert Blyleven.

Last year, the Angels got two victories from their fifth starters and 10 from the No. 4, Kirk McCaskill, who left as a free agent.

“The one place we don’t have a lot of depth is in our starting pitching,” Rodgers said. “We have to shore up our fourth and fifth starters. I’d like to pick up 20 wins combined (from the Nos. 4 and 5) so that the left-handers have a margin of error, so that they can do their thing without being pressured.

“As long as it’s spread out, we don’t need all three winning 18 or 19 games again. If one of them wins 15, it would be more realistic.”

Statistics can be deceiving. There are always variables and intangibles. Who would have thought in mid-May that Felix would be batting .304 and among the American League’s run-batted-in leaders? Or that Gonzales would be the second base starter with five home runs and a .333 average? Or that the No. 9 hitter, Gary DiSarcina, would have been among the Angels’ most consistent?

Will it last? Time will tell, but Finley, like his manager, said he was certain of this: “Pitching has been the backbone of this team the last couple years and will continue to be.”

Certainly, he meant that as a left-handed compliment to the other two-thirds of the Big Three--Abbott and Langston.