Win Is Worth the Weight : Minton Takes a Healthy Path to Victory

Greg Minton saved the ball from his first American League victory to give to his wife, Brenda. Although he pitched the final four innings in Wednesday night’s 10-7 Angel victory over the Cleveland Indians, Minton believes she deserves much of the credit.

“I lost 36 pounds because of her,” he said. “She’s a physical therapist and she worked my butt off. Medicine ball exercises for the stomach, millions of sit-ups. . . . I rededicated my life to pitching last year because of her.”

They were married last November, but, less than a year later, Minton’s new beginning seemed to have ground to a halt. All the work appeared to have gone for naught a little more than a week ago when Minton was released by the Giants.

The pitching-poor Angels got the veteran reliever on June 2, however, and Wednesday night he worked four scoreless innings and allowed just two hits.

“I can’t remember the last time I pitched four innings . . . maybe it was in high school,” Minton said, dragging his jacket around the clubhouse floor with a dangling right arm. “Really, I think it was 1982. But the more I throw, the better my sinker gets. Still, in the last two innings, I was beginning to wonder if the ball would reach the plate.

“I’ll do anything to help this team, though. Let’s face it, 10 days ago, I didn’t even have a job. I wanted out of San Francisco--I was just pitching mop-up there--and I started to make a little stink. But I figured I’d be traded, not released.”

Minton holds the major league record for consecutive innings pitched (269) without allowing a home run, a streak that ran from Sept. 6, 1978, to May 2, 1982. He underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow in January and was 1-0 with a 3.47 earned-run average with the Giants.

“I’ve had Greg up (in the bullpen) every game except one and the day off since he’s been here,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said. “I didn’t expect to have to use him like this. I never asked him if he was tired. And he gave us four great--and highly appreciated--innings despite all that.”

The game already was almost three hours old when Minton relieved John Candelaria to start the sixth. He didn’t figure he would be making an appearance at all after the Angels went ahead, 7-2, in the fourth, but Cleveland scored five in the fifth to tie it.

“I had to mix a protein drink in the fifth just to stay awake,” Minton said. “Before that we were sitting out there in the bullpen talking about playing Password.

“These four-inning American League stints are really something. I’m going to have to start icing myself from the toes up. But I feel great, thanks to Brenda. If she hadn’t helped me lose all that weight, I wouldn’t be pitching now. And I wouldn’t be able to even see my toes, either.”

So Brenda will get the ball, but she’s got one more chore to take care of this morning.

“She’s going to have to comb my hair for me,” Minton said, cradling his right arm.