He’s Not Feeling Like King of Hill These Days

Asking a big league pitcher to just throw strikes is like asking a master chef to whip up a house salad or a certified public accountant to balance a checkbook--no problem, routine stuff, right?

“Until you get out on the mound and start thinking about it,” Angel pitcher Ken Hill said. “That’s the worst thing you can do.”

Hill may have psyched himself right out of the strike zone Saturday night, walking six and giving up seven runs in the Angels’ 10-9 loss to the Orioles.

His mechanics seemed fine, his fastball was consistently clocked in the 93-mph range and his split-finger pitches had some bite. But Hill couldn’t control his deliveries.

“I’m frustrated more than anything else,” said Hill, acquired from the Texas Rangers on July 29. “I come here and I’m trying to help the team win, I get a 7-1 lead and can’t hold it . . . that should have been a win.”

Hill has walked 19 in 22 innings of his four Angel starts. “I’m trying to figure it, man,” Hill said. “I walk guys, but not six or seven a start. All I can do is keep plugging away.”

Bullpen coach Joe Coleman said Hill may be pressing too much, trying to impress his new team, and Hill couldn’t disagree.

“I’m not helping the team, and the team needs me now because every game means something,” Hill said. “I don’t want the manager thinking that when I get out there he’s got to pull his hair out. I’ve got to get it back some way, somehow.”

*

Angel third base coach Larry Bowa was steaming after Sunday’s 5-4 loss to the Orioles, but not because of the hot and humid conditions in Camden Yards.

Bowa was ejected in the middle of the fourth inning after an argument stemming from home plate umpire Ed Hickox’s controversial call on Dave Hollins at the plate.

But it was third base umpire Joe Brinkman--and not Hickox--who drew the wrath of Bowa, who went chest to chest with Brinkman until Manager Terry Collins intervened. Coaches Joe Maddon, Dave Parker, Marcel Lachemann, Sam Suplizio and infielder Jack Howell also had to come out to restrain Bowa.

“I wasn’t mad over the call, it was something [Brinkman] said,” Bowa said. “It was something personal, and it was directed at me.”

Brinkman said he told Bowa to “get your [rear end] back in the dugout,” and said his remark came after Bowa “popped off that I should go and watch the replay.”

*

There was no change in the status of Angel leadoff batter Tony Phillips on Sunday--he remained in the Baltimore area in a holding pattern, not with the team but on the active 25-man roster, until the Angels decide their response to his arrest on felony possession of cocaine charges.

Phillips was cleared to play by doctors representing Major League Baseball and the players association Saturday, but the Angels wanted to review the situation further before allowing Phillips to return.

“We’re going to meet by telephone with the baseball doctor [today],” Angel President Tony Tavares said, “and then we’ll make a decision.”

*

Baltimore won Sunday’s game in the bottom of the 10th but might have won it in the ninth if not for a major base-running blunder by Jeffrey Hammonds.

Hammonds was on first and Lenny Webster on second with one out in a 4-4 game when Aaron Ledesma singled to left. Webster held at third, but Hammonds, thinking Webster had continued on to home, raced to third, even though his run was meaningless.

Angel catcher Chad Kreuter fielded Garret Anderson’s throw and threw to second baseman Luis Alicea, who ran Hammonds toward third. Webster had to break for home and eventually was tagged out in a rundown.

That took the bat out of B.J. Surhoff’s hands--the Orioles’ hottest hitter was intentionally walked--and Geronimo Berroa struck out to end the inning.

“I have nothing to say,” Hammonds said. “I made a mistake.”

TODAY’S GAME

ANGELS’ DENNIS SPRINGER (8-5, 5.35 ERA) vs. ORIOLES’ MIKE MUSSINA (13-5, 3.28 ERA)

Camden Yards, Baltimore, 4:30 p.m.

TV--Channel 9. Radio--KTZN (710).

* Update--Center fielder Jim Edmonds has played two games since coming off the disabled list, but his lower-back strain is still causing problems. Edmonds doubled over in pain after fouling off a high pitch in the fifth inning Sunday, and he winced after making a lunging catch of Geronimo Berroa’s first-inning drive to deep center. The Angels, after blowing a six-run lead in Saturday’s loss to Baltimore, couldn’t hold leads of 3-1 and 4-3 Sunday. And with Mussina, the Oriole ace, going tonight, the Angels are in danger of being swept in the three-game series. “It’s tough when you battle all day long, give it back, battle again and you have nothing to show for it,” Edmonds said. “But that’s the way it goes.” Oriole third baseman Cal Ripken reached another milestone Sunday, playing in his 2,500th game.