6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

September 25, 1986

September rapidly came and went as the Angels flew past any of their competition. With only one losing month all year -- a 10-17 May -- the Angels had arrived at the doorstep of what would prove a 92-win season, their best since 1982. With only Texas providing serious competition all year, the Angels opened up a three-and-a-half game lead at the end of July, kicking in the afterburners with a 15-11 August that included a month-ending seven-game win streak against Baltimore, New York, and Detroit that found them increasing their lead by two games. By September 24, a 14-7 stretch had kicked it into another gear, boosting the team's division lead three more games, to eight and a half. The Angels were about to cruise into the postseason.

But a big series with Texas loomed, and given the franchise history, everybody was publicly cautious. In the final year of his Angels contract, and, some speculated, his last year in baseball, Reggie Jackson didn't want to push matters:

"I didn't want to clinch against Texas," he said. "I wanted to do it before. If you do it against your closest (competing) team, they get to see what winning is like. I don't like showing a team what it feels like. It can only make that team want it more."

Cleveland drew first blood that Thursday, a "businessman's special" day game played in front of 22,684. Sophomore Angels starter Kirk McCaskill started well, retiring the first five Indians in a row, but with two outs in the second, Pat Tabler hit a two-out single to left. Up to the plate came rookie right fielder Dave Clark, with a grand total of six hits in 26 at bats. He promptly blasted a 1-0 pitch over the center field fence, his first career home run, giving the Tribe a 2-0 lead.

It wouldn't last. In the third, the Halos turned on knuckleballer Phil Niekro, still plying his trade at the amazing age of 47. With two outs, Ruppert Jones got a gift double when he blooped a flyball into shallow center that evaded Brett Butler. Niekro then tossed a wild pitch on ball four to Brian Downing, allowing Jones to advance to third. Consecutive singles by rookie sensation Wally Joyner and Doug DeCinces tied the game at 2-2. In the seventh, rookie shortstop Cory Snyder hit a solo shot to center, but that would be it for Cleveland.

The Angels, however, were far from done. The Tribe started the eighth by pulling Niekro, replacing him with reliever Frank Wills. That proved decisive, as Mr. October -- playing in his 19th September -- blasted an opposite-field two-run shot that followed a leadoff single by DeCinces. The scoring didn't end there: with nobody out, Bobby Grich reached on a double, and Dick Schofield pushed a sac bunt that somehow the Cleveland infield misplayed, getting Schofield aboard at first and Grich to third. Wills then threw a pickoff toss to third -- with nobody covering! The ball scooted down the left field line, scoring Grich, with Schofield tearing around to third. Bob Boone singled him in with career hit 1,500.

The Indians, two games over .500 coming into the day's proceedings, were clinging to respectability, and had seen enough of Wills, bringing in Ernie Camacho. His first act was to give up a sac fly to Gary Pettis, the final run of the game, which ended 6-3 Angels, with Donnie Moore getting the save in the ninth, facing only four batters.

Gene Mauch, who had predicted 90 wins would take the AL West before the season, turned out to be a little shy of the actual total, as the Angels would merely take the division with that number. "I don't care about being right. I just care about being first", Mauch would say after the game. The Angels would, in fact, clinch on the very next game, an 8-3 blowout of the Rangers at home in front of 46,677.

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Of course, tragedy and death followed that champagne-drenched celebration. The scapegoating of Donnie Moore for his one-out-away miscue in ALCS Game 5 was yet to occur, but two far more ominous problems haunted the Angels. One was the pending free agency of their core players. Nine Angels -- Bobby Grich, Doug DeCinces, Brian Downing, Reggie Jackson, Bob Boone, Rick Burleson, Don Sutton, Ruppert Jones and Doug Corbett -- were eligible for free agency. Most would come back, in fact, all but Jackson, who left for a victory lap with Oakland, and Corbett, who finished his seven-year career in Baltimore with a 7.83 ERA and an 0-2 record.

The other issue was age. The Angels entire outfield was over thirty. Boone, their durable catcher, was thirty eight. Bobby Grich would retire. Replacing Rob Wilfong with Mark McLemore to a starting role at second in 1987 (though the latter was to become more famous as a super-utility guy in the vein of Chone Figgins) would help the age problem, though not the offense. At DH, Jackson's exit actually proved beneficial. Brian Downing, who left the outfield permanently in 1987 to take over the DH spot for Jackson, ended the season with an OPS+ of 137, versus the 116 Jackson gave them in 1986. And of course, 25-year-old Joyner had his career year.

But that was pretty much the end of the good news. The rotation exploded in '87, with McCaskill requiring arm surgery in April, returning in June and then re-exiting the rotation in September. Don Sutton was 42, his ERA rising nearly a whole point from 3.74 to 4.70; worse, he was burning up the bullpen. Mike Witt's ERA would rise from 2.84 to 4.01. John Candelaria made a nuisance of himself off the field and would get traded to the Mets. By the end of the season, the Angels got so desperate that they started a crash project to turn long reliever Chuck Finley into a starter, an effort that proved remarkably successful. Finley would go on to start 467 games in his 17-year career, winning 195 of them.

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As always, thanks to Retrosheet, Baseball Reference, and the Los Angeles Times for research assistance.