By Ross Newhan / Los Angeles Times

Box score

As he walked out of the Angels dugout to warm up, Ryan handed catcher Ellie Rodriguez a marble-sized ball and said, "This is what I'm going to throw today."

The ball apparently looked that small to the Baltimore Orioles as Ryan made American League history by hurling the fourth no-hit game of his career, pitching the Angels to a 1-0 victory before 18,492 fans at Anaheim Stadium.

Former Cleveland great Bob Feller was the only other American Leaguer to pitch three no-hitters and now Ryan has joined the ex-Dodger, Sandy Koufax, the only other pitcher with four.

Ryan walked four Orioles and had a fourth reach base on an error by shortstop Billy Smith but, with the crowd on its feet cheering virtually every pitch, he retired the last eight batters, including three of the Eastern Division champions' most dangerous hitters in the ninth.

Al Bumbry flied to left. Tommy Davis grounded out to rookie second baseman Jerry Remy - who had made the critical play on another Davis grounder in the seventh - and Ryan then wrapped it up fanning Bobby Grich, catching the second baseman looking at a changeup. It was his ninth strikeout.

Ryan was mobbed by his teammates as he walked toward the dugout, and then was brought back to the field by the crowd's shouts of, "We want Ryan! We want Ryan!" He waved his cap in appreciation and then embraced his wife, Ruth, who had watched his 1973 no-hitters at Kansas City and Detroit on television but had missed his final start of last season when he no-hit Minnesota at the Big A.

Later, standing by his locker, the 28-year-old Ryan displayed the same low-key demeanor that has characterized a career in which he has broken almost every strikeout record, a career in which he has won 19 or more games for a poor team during three straight seasons, a career which he once almost walked away from because of a frustrating struggle with his control and irregular work with the New York Mets.

Ryan seemed less excited than the reporters and photographers who crowded around him, who kept asking what his emotions were now that he had moved ahead of Feller and joined Koufax.

"It's nice to have the recognition," he said, "but it's something that won't change my thinking. I just don't go into games thinking no-hitter, and I don't place that much emphasis on the single accomplishment.

"What I mean is that rather than having put it together on June 1, on the one day, I'd rather have the one great year. I'd rather go 27-5 so that I could say, 'Hey, I put it together over the full year.'

"That's not to say I hadn't thought about pitching a fourth no-hitter. In fact, when I warmed up before pitching against Cleveland last Wednesday I had the best stuff I've ever had before a game and I said to myself, 'You've got a real shot at that no-hitter tonight.' So, what happens? I get beat. You never know."

Ryan, admitted, however, that with youth on his side, he was aware that the opportunity to pitch a fourth no-hitter "would come along." He has that realization regarding a historic fifth. "Well," he said, "I still don't feel as if I've reached my peak."

He may be getting close, however. Sunday's win was the 100th of a career in which he has lost 85. He is 9-3 with a 2.45 ERA and has now thrown a no-hitter every 27.2 starts since throwing his first.

Sunday's win also snapped his team's five-game losing streak and manager Dick Williams said, "Maybe a no-hitter was the only way we could have done it."

Consecutive singles by Mickey Rivers, Tommy Harper and Dave Chalk provided the third-inning run that beat Ross Grimsley (1-7) and which Ryan protected so tenaciously.

"We haven't been aggressive, and we needed something to pick us up," Ryan said. "I was determined to be the stopper today. I wasn't going to blow the opportunity."

Of the realization that he was working on a no-hitter, Ryan said, "I started to think about it some in the fifth and sixth innings but I never really had the feeling that it was happening, even in the ninth inning. Baltimore has so many good hitters that you have to go out by out. And in the ninth, they had two of the toughest up in Davis and Grich."

Baltimore got its first base runner when Grich walked with one out in the second. Mark Belanger and Tom Shopay both walked in the third. There was nothing resembling a hit, however, until Davis batted for Don Baylor and opened the seventh by hitting a chopper over the mound. The ball was fielded behind second by Remy, who snapped a throw to first, where umpire Hank Soar drew the wrath of Davis and manager Earl Weaver by calling the runner out.

With any other Oriole, there would not have been any argument and there would not have been a no-hitter. Davis, however, is 36 and has not run well since he broke his ankle while with the Dodgers in 1965.

"I wouldn't have argued if I hadn't thought I was safe," Davis said. "Maybe Soar was going on the theory that the first hit has to be a sure hit."

Said Weaver: "I felt at the time that Tommy was safe but I've since talked to a number of people and now I'm not sure. I'd hate to see a no-hitter ruined because an umpire made a mistake, so I'll assume he was right, which I have to, anyway. My concern wasn't with the no-hitter but with trying to win the game."

Said Ryan: "Jerry's play was the big one. When he made it, I said to myself, 'This might be our day.' "

Ironically, though, Ryan then issued another walk to Grich and watched rookie Smith boot a double-play grounder hit by Lee May. The Orioles had runners at first and third with one out, but Ryan got Brooks Robinson on a grounder to third before popping up Ellie Hendricks and retiring the sides flawlessly over the final two innings.

The count was 2-and-2 when he fooled Grich with the changeup to end it.

"Damn right he fooled me," Grich said. "I wasn't thinking anything, just looking for the ball, but I didn't expect a changeup, and he got it in a perfect spot, low and away."

Grich said that in that situation, in a 1-0 game, he was "up there swinging for a home run" and that he felt Ryan's stuff "was just as good" when he beat the Orioles with a two-hitter May 18.

Ryan, who had lost his last two starts, yielding five home runs in 13 innings, said that all of his pitches were working effectively.

"Control-wise," Ryan said, "it was comparable to my other no-hitters, but I still feel that the one in Detroit was the best because I was so overpowering [he fanned 17]."

Equipment manager Mickey Shishido opened bottles of California champagne following Sunday's game but Ryan, who seldom drinks, turned down a glass and said he would celebrate by taking Ruth out for a quiet dinner.

He had another reason to celebrate, he said, and that was the decision by manager Williams to employ a four-man rotation, rather than the five he had used at previous times this season. This was Ryan's first start with only three days' rest, which he prefers.

Before the game, he said, he spent 15 minutes in the Big A's weight room doing exercises designed to loosen up his legs and arms.

His catcher wasn't notified until shortly before the game that he was coming off the disabled list. The Angels made room for Rodriguez by sending Bob Allietta to Salt Lake City.

Rodriguez said it was the first no-hitter he has ever caught. It was the seventh no-hitter in Angels history. Besides Ryan's four, Bo Belinsky no-hit Baltimore, Clyde Wright no-hit Oakland and the Angels were no-hit by Boston's Earl Wilson.

Ryan laughed and said that this game actually made him the first pitcher in baseball history to hurl five no-hitters since he threw one for his high school in the Texas playoffs.

"You mean," he said, "that doesn't count?"