Wednesday, April 17, 2002
Angels 6, Rangers 5
Rocker sent to minors after blowing save
The Associated Press
ANAHEIM, Calif. — John Rocker and his troubled career are headed to the minor leagues. The left-hander was optioned to the minors early Wednesday, hours after he blew a save for the Texas Rangers in the 10th inning against the Anaheim Angels.
Rocker, whose crude remarks about minorities in 1999 led to a suspension and set off a nationwide debate, was sent to the Rangers' Triple-A Oklahoma farm club.
The club had not yet made a roster move to replace Rocker on the 25-man roster, Rangers spokesman John Blake said in a statement.
Rocker is 0-1 with a 9.53 ERA and one save in six relief appearances with Texas this season. He has blown two of his three save opportunities.
He was the losing pitcher in Tuesday's 6-5 loss in 10 innings at Anaheim, allowing Darin Erstad's game-winning two-run double.
Jose Nieves led off with an infield single off Rocker. David Eckstein walked, and Erstad delivered a liner into the right-field corner on an 0-2 pitch.
“You just try to put the ball in play in that situation,” Erstad said. “He's obviously a great pitcher, but nobody's perfect. He made a mistake, and fortunately I did something with it. But nine times out of 10, you're not going to get a chance like that, but you have to take advantage of that one time.”
Rangers starter Doug Davis threw 112 pitches over eight innings and allowed four runs — three earned — and eight hits.
But the Texas bullpen, which entered with a 7.71 ERA, blew its sixth save in seven chances following injuries to closer Jeff Zimmerman and setup man Jay Powell.
The victory went to Al Levine (1-0), who pitched two innings and allowed an RBI double by Rafael Palmeiro in the top of the 10th. The hit was the 2,500th of Palmeiro's career and third of the game.
Palmeiro needs one home run to become the 15th player in history with at least 450 homers and 2,500 hits. Every player on that list is in the Hall of Fame except Eddie Murray, who isn't eligible yet.
Personal numbers are the last thing on Palmeiro's mind with the Rangers off to a 3-11 start.
“We need to win some games. It stinks to lose, and it stinks to lose the way we're losing,” Palmeiro said. “Nobody in here likes it, but we created it and we have to fix it. That's it.
“If we were getting our brains beat in, that's one thing. But we're not. Our starters are pitching good, we're playing pretty good defense and we're starting to hit a little bit, and we're in position to win every time out.”
Erstad crashed into the center-field fence face first after missing a two-out triple by Frank Catalonotto in the second. Erstad was on his face again moments later, diving for an RBI double by Rusty Greer that put Texas ahead 4-3.
“I'm surprised Erstad is still talking to me after I tried to get him killed,” Angels starter Aaron Sele said. “You can't say enough about him, the way he plays the game.”
The Angels pulled even in the bottom half with an RBI single by Eckstein that scored Brad Fullmer, who doubled with one out.
Anaheim starter Aaron Sele trailed 3-0 after just four pitches.
Nieves, starting at second base for the first time this season, fielded Catalonotto's routine grounder and pulled first baseman Scott Spiezio off the bag with the throw. Greer singled, and Rodriguez made it 3-0 by hitting the next pitch into the left field bullpen for his sixth homer, all in the last nine games, and a tie for the AL home run lead.
The Angels tied it in the bottom of the first, aided by a mental lapse by rookie right fielder Kevin Mench — who lost track of the outs.
Anderson doubled home the first two runs, and Tim Salmon followed with a routine fly to Mench, who caught the ball and trotted off the field with his head down, thinking it was the third out.
Mench flipped the ball underhand toward first base umpire Alfonso Marquez, who turned away from the live ball, as Anderson scored to make it 3-3.
“We made some mistakes tonight that cost us early, and we had some chances to score some more runs and we didn't,” Palmeiro said. “So regardless of how the game ended, we lost it on other things that happened throughout the game. If we'd done what we were supposed to have done, maybe we would have won 8-5.”
Sele allowed four runs — three earned — and eight hits in 6 2-3 innings. The right-hander has given up 14 earned runs and 26 hits over his first 16 2-3 innings with the Angels.
Notes: Mench, who made his seventh start in place of the injured Juan Gonzalez, singled to right in the sixth — but stumbled and fell about 15 feet from the plate and had to hustle to avoid getting thrown out. ... Angels 3B Troy Glaus left the game after three innings because of problems with his contact lenses. He struck out both times up. ... Rodriguez's 27 homers against Anaheim are his highest total against any team. ... Tuesday was the 30th anniversary of the Rangers' first regular-season victory after the franchise's relocation from Washington. They beat the Angels 5-1 in this ballpark. ... Erstad made up for his two failed diving attempts with a diving flat-out backhanded catch that robbed Mike Lamb.
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