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Jerome Williams helps Angels cut into Rangers’ lead

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His mother, Deborah, would have been so proud.

She was not in Angel Stadium to see Jerome Williams pitch the game of his life Wednesday night, an eight-inning, one-run, one-hit effort in the thick of a pennant race to lead the Angels to a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

Maicer Izturis keyed a three-run eighth inning with a two-run double for a dramatic come-from-behind win that, combined with Texas’ loss to Tampa Bay, moved the Angels within 21/2games of the Rangers in the American League West with 19 games to play.

Erick Aybar sparked the winning rally with an infield single, Peter Bourjos added an insurance run with an RBI single, and Jordan Walden threw a scoreless ninth for his 29th save, but the story on another sizzling September evening was Williams.

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Only this time, it wasn’t only the Horatio Alger tale associated with Williams, the 29-year-old journeyman who spent four years pitching in Taiwan, Mexico, Puerto Rico and two independent leagues before returning to the big leagues in August.

It was the glove. For the first time in six games with the Angels, Williams wore the pink glove he has used all season with the independent Lancaster (Pa.) Barnstormers and the Angels’ triple-A team at Salt Lake.

He wears it in memory of his mother, who died of breast cancer 10 years ago.

“I talked to the umpires before my first game here, and they said I could use it, but I was scared to,” Williams said after improving to 3-0 and lowering his earned-run average to 3.51.

“I didn’t want the attention. I had just gotten called up, and I didn’t want people to ask about the story behind it.”

Williams’ story is inspiring enough, as it is. A former first-round pick of the San Francisco Giants in 1999, the right-hander went 23-29 with a 4.25 ERA in 76 big league games from 2003 to 2007.

But a shoulder injury and weight problems—he ballooned from 200 to 270 pounds one year — led to his release by the Washington Nationals in 2007, and he has been a baseball nomad ever since.

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If he continues to pitch like he did Wednesday, when he mixed a 90-mph fastball with a heavy two-seam, sinking fastball, a sharp cut fastball, curve and changeup and needed only 84 pitches to get through eight innings, he might call Anaheim home for a while.

“He just makes pitches,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s a great story, and if he can keep his stuff the way it is now, he can pitch in the big leagues for a long time. He’s legitimate.”

Williams, who went almost six years — from Sept. 25, 2005, to Aug. 21 of this season — between big league victories, had a no-hitter through five innings before Trayvon Robinson led off the sixth by golfing a low cut fastball over the short wall in right field for a 1-0 Seattle lead.

It was the only hit Williams gave up. Problem was, Seattle starter Charlie Furbush, who entered with a 2-4 record and 6.39 ERA, was doing his best Cliff Lee impersonation, blanking the Angels on three hits through seven innings.

But Aybar beat out a one-out grounder to the shortstop hole for a single in the eighth, took second on a wild pitch, and pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspo walked.

Jeremy Moore ran for Callaspo, and Izturis drove his decisive double into the gap in left-center for a 2-1 Angels lead. Bourjos followed with an RBI single to center off reliever Tom Wilhelmsen to make it 3-1.

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Though the Texas-Tampa Bay final was posted before the first pitch, Williams claimed he didn’t know the Rangers had lost until he looked at the scoreboard in the fifth inning. Ignorance, in his case, can be bliss.

“It’s exciting, but I can’t let all those emotions get to me when I go out there and pitch,” Williams said. “I know we’re in a hunt for the playoffs, but I can’t worry about that. I have to concentrate on getting a win.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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