Appier Chews Up Innings, Blue Jays

Somewhere on his beloved East Coast, Mo Vaughn struggles. A recently mended broken bone is in his right hand and--odds are--a large sandwich in his left.

Kevin Appier, meanwhile, is just eating up innings in Anaheim. Certainly, that’s food for thought.

The Angels’ 4-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday had to make them feel better about the $80 million they spent to sign Vaughn. Sure, Vaughn was a fish out of water in his three seasons on the West Coast, but he was ample trade bait to land Appier in Anaheim during the off-season.

There was no doubt which one would have won a popularity vote among the 25,296 at Edison Field. Appier (2-1) went 62/3 shutout innings, staying in command without looking overwhelming. Still, for the few fans who might miss the rotund first baseman, Appier provided a Vaughn-like number. Appier stranded five runners in scoring position ... Blue Jay runners, though.

Al Levine and Troy Percival finished the shutout, Percival striking out Raul Mondesi and Carlos Delgado on off-speed pitches with the bases loaded to end the game.

“I’m a two-pitch pitcher, and you need to have two or you’re going to be in trouble out there, especially against those two guys,” Percival said.

The blue-collar Appier made the most of his repertoire in another workmanlike performance. He has pitched into the seventh inning in three of five starts this season.

“Ape really had to work for that one,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He made some great pitches with runners in scoring position. That was a great outing.”

One of many in his career.

Appier has pitched at least 200 innings in eight of the last 11 seasons. He bounced back from arm surgery in 1998 to win 42 games in the last three seasons.

He was in typical form Friday. His fastball rarely broke 90 mph, but he did strike out five batters. He gave up loud doubles to Dave Berg, Eric Hinske and Vernon Wells, but worked out of each jam.

“They hit the ball off me better than the score reflects,” Appier said. “I did make some big pitches with runners in scoring position. I also got away with some atom balls.”

Scioscia hopes his younger pitchers were taking notes.

“Having him out there every fifth day is something a lot of our pitchers can feed off,” Scioscia said.

Appier was therapeutic for all the Angels, who had been put in their place--a distant third--by AL West opponents the last three weeks.

The Angels were 17-41 against Seattle, Oakland and Texas last season. That pattern has continued this season. They were 6-12 during an 18-game stretch against West teams.

“Our team is not intimidated in any aspect of any club we play,” Scioscia said. “I have no questions at all about the confidence level of this club, the self-esteem, the feeling that they can win.”

Still ...

“It will be nice to see some different uniforms out there,” Tim Salmon said.

The Blue Jays’ attire was easy on Angel eyes.

Scioscia stuck with his mini-three lineup, with David Eckstein, Adam Kennedy and Orlando Palmeiro at the top of the batting order.

They set up things in the first inning. Eckstein was hit by a pitch, Kennedy sacrificed him to second and Palmeiro bunted for a base hit. Without hitting the ball more than 80 feet, the Angels had runners on first and third.

Garret Anderson singled to score Eckstein, his ninth RBI in the last eight games.

Troy Glaus, who solved his vision problem last week with new contact lenses after a visit to the same Bay Area eye doctor who helped Mark McGwire, sliced a double into the right-field corner. Palmeiro and Anderson scored. One out later, Brad Fullmer flared a single to right to score Glaus.