Twins’ Comeback Beats Angels’ Comeback, 7-3

MINNEAPOLIS —  The Angels’ present to Doug Rader on their manager’s 46th birthday was to slide a notch lower in the American League West standings and teeter within a game of last place.

It was an unhappy return to a low point they last hit on May 22, a frustrating night fraught with snuffed opportunities instead of snuffed candles. Rallying once in support of starter Bert Blyleven proved insufficient Monday. The Twins matched a three-run Angel flurry in the top of the seventh with three in the bottom of the inning against Blyleven and Mark Eichhorn and took fifth place with a 7-3 victory at the Metrodome.

“You’re one run down at 4-3 and all of a sudden, we’ve got four runs we’ve got to make up. That’s tough to do twice, especially late in the game,” first baseman Lee Stevens said. “The big inning kills us. It was a good sign that we came back, that we didn’t give up, but when it was 4-3, they beat us to the bigger inning.”

Minnesota took the lead in the second inning on a leadoff home run by Gary Gaetti, the first of his four RBIs. A single by Brian Harper--extending his hitting streak to a league-best 20 games--and an error by shortstop Donnie Hill on Randy Bush’s fielder’s choice grounder put runners on first and third with two out, a jam Blyleven escaped via a strikeout and a grounder.

But he couldn’t dodge disaster in the sixth inning.

The 38-year-old right-hander was hit hard in the sixth, giving up three runs after yielding singles to four of the first five hitters. He lasted 6 2/3 innings and was charged with six runs, inflating his earned-run average to 5.47. Over his last seven starts, Blyleven has allowed 34 earned runs in 34 innings. He’s 1-3 with three no-decisions in that span.

Blyleven studiously reviewed game films with pitching coach Marcel Lachemann. Despite the live and taped evidence, Rader insisted Blyleven had pitched “a tremendous game,” a game Rader said hinged on Kirby Puckett’s single to left field in the sixth inning, and Gaetti snaring a line drive by Brian Downing in the seventh with three runs in and a runner on second.

“It came down to one ball settled and one ball didn’t,” Rader said. “There wasn’t a single thing wrong with what Bert did tonight. . . . The fact is that Bert kept us in a position to win, and that’s the obligation of a starting pitcher. Brian hits the daylights out of the ball and it’s caught, and Kirby flips one and it falls in.”

The Angels’ seventh-inning rally against Kevin Tapani (11-5) began when Dave Winfield singled to right field and moved to second on Johnny Ray’s single to left. Both scored on Donnie Hill’s triple to right-center, a drive that ricocheted off the padding above the right-field fence.

Hill scored when Kent Anderson lined a double off the plexiglass barrier atop the left-field fence. Tapani was relieved by Terry Leach, who quashed the Angels’ hopes when he got Downing to line to third.

“We scored three with two outs and got back in the game,” Anderson said, “but they went out and did what a team is supposed to do. You’ve got to give them credit. We should be scoring more runs. We’re hitting the ball well but to people. That happens when things aren’t going well.”

Angel Notes

Despite increasing speculation that he is about to be named manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Angel broadcaster Joe Torre said he had not been made an offer. However, he said he had talked with Cardinal General Manager Dal Maxvill Monday and believes he is still a prime candidate.

“We were discussing numbers--more than numbers, details,” said Torre, who last managed in Atlanta in 1984. “They’re getting serious. But I have no way of knowing they’re not doing the same thing with anyone else.”

Torre, who said he’d heard the Cards were “very impressed” with Milwaukee Brewer hitting instructor Don Baylor, said the chief attractions of the job were managing in the city where he enjoyed some of his finest years and the chance to work with a friend such as Maxvill rather than for a boss.

Wally Joyner (fractured kneecap) and Chili Davis (lower back strain) were examined by team physician Lewis Yocum Monday at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood. Joyner was described as improving and Davis as progressing. Both are eligible to be activated off the disabled list but neither is expected to be activated in the immediate future.