Holtz Holds Own In Difficult Debut
Anyone who has ever dreamed of standing on a major league mound can identify with Mike Holtz, who now has - and suffered the consequences.
Like most teams this season, the California Angels have been pitching hungry, so after the All Star break they brought up the 23-year-old Holtz from Class AA. His first day in the big leagues, he got into a game.
He won’t soon forget it.
“It wasn’t the ideal situation,” manager Marcel Lachemann said Friday, “but the kid did a good job.”
Holtz, all 5-foot-9, 175 pounds of him, inherited a Seattle threat in the 12th inning Thursday, after Angels reliever Rich Monteleone had given up a single to Paul Sorrento, balked him to second base and watched him take third on a ground out.
This was Holtz’ debut: He came into the game with a man on third base, one out, and both his infield and his outfield playing in.
Holtz struck out Darren Bragg.
“That was the tough out and he got it,” Lachemann said. “Then he got ahead of the next hitter (Doug Strange) with a curveball.”
On his 0-1 pitch, Holtz threw a curve in the dirt, Strange checked his swing, and the ball bounded away from reserve catcher Pat Borders - a wild pitch that brought home Seattle’s winning run in a 5-4 victory.
Afterward, Borders went out of his way to accept the blame, saying he should have blocked the pitch he knew was coming. Lachemann said Borders stops the ball eight times out of 10.
Notes
Reliever Norm Charlton was cleared to pitch Friday after missing the past five games. … In the absence of Ken Griffey Jr., Rich Amaral has started regularly in center field, raising his batting average from .234 to .286 since June 20. Amaral also leads the club with 11 stolen bases in 14 attempts. … Long reliever Rafael Carmona is 6-0 this season and bearing down on a pair of team records. Reliever Roy Thomas won seven consecutive games to open the 1985 season. The team record is nine, shared by Dave Fleming and Scott Bankhead. Carmona won his last decision in 1995, so he has a seven-game winning streak.
Coming up
One-time Mariner Shawn Boskie (9-3, 4.27 ERA) faces off with Rusty Meacham (0-1, 4.00) in a 1:05 p.m. game to be televised by Fox.