Hollins Pulls Out All the Stops for Angels

There will be no Gold Glove award on the mantel in Dave Hollins’ home this winter. The Angel third baseman may have one of baseball’s strongest infield arms, but it’s also erratic, as Hollins showed when he committed his team-high 20th error Saturday night.

But just as Angel fans sometimes hold their breath as Hollins is about to throw, Hollins sometimes leaves them breathless, as he did when he made two dazzling plays to prevent three runs from scoring in the Angels’ 5-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

An Anaheim Stadium crowd of 28,139, swelled by the largest walk-up gate (8,121) of the season, saw Hollins make two backhand diving grabs, one of Ozzie Guillen’s grounder in the fifth and one of Albert Belle’s vicious low liner in the sixth.

The Guillen stop came with two out and a runner on third, and the Belle stop came with runners on first and second and none out, preventing the ball from going into the left-field corner for a sure double and helping the Angels maintain their half-game lead over Seattle in the American League West.

Just for good measure, Hollins dove to his left to grab Ray Durham’s eighth-inning grounder and threw him out. Then, to show he was human, Hollins fielded Frank Thomas’ routine grounder and sailed his throw about two feet over the head of first baseman Darin Erstad for an error.

“There are a lot of times when our third baseman gets maligned,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said, “but he played third tonight as well as anyone can play it. He’s so intense, he plays with all-out effort. . . . Without those plays those are both doubles, and you don’t know what the score would be.”

Hollins’ defense--along with a key 3-6-3 double play to end the sixth by first baseman Jack Howell and shortstop Gary DiSarcina, helped make a winner of knuckleballer Dennis Springer, who followed Monday’s eight-hit shutout of Cleveland with an eight-inning, two-run, four-hit performance.

The Angels throttled White Sox rookie Chris Clemons for five runs in the second, two on Garret Anderson’s sixth home run of the season and fourth in the last nine games, and two on Tony Phillips’ two-out single. Hollins’ plays preserved a 5-1 lead in the fifth and a 5-2 lead in the sixth.

“Dennis pitched a great game,” Collins said, “but he ought to take Hollins out. He owes him a steak dinner.”

Closer Troy Percival, who walked three and looked completely lost on the Jacobs Field mound in Cleveland in his last appearance Monday night, looked like the Percival of old, striking out two of four batters in the ninth for his 15th save.

Mark Langston’s comeback from elbow surgery is in a holding pattern because of elbow stiffness, but Springer sent a message to the Angel left-hander Saturday night: Take your time, don’t rush it, everything’s under control.

Springer had gone 2-3 with a 7.20 earned-run average in 11 starts before last week, giving up 17 homers in 65 innings, but on the advice of former knuckleballer Phil Niekro, he took a little off his knuckler, and the results have been amazing.

He walked only two against the Indians Monday night and only one Saturday night. The right-hander had a no-hitter through four innings against the White Sox, struck out two and improved to 7-4.

“Phil said to change speeds more, throw it softer, give it a chance to move,” Springer said. “That’s what has worked for me these last two games. I’ve been getting ahead of hitters and setting them up with different knuckleballs. They hit some balls hard, but luckily right at guys.”