Angels Fire Port; Duties Taken Over by O’Brien : Game: Two-run rally in the 11th defeats the Indians, 6-5, after Harvey balks home a run in the top of that inning.

He had gotten up in the early innings to soft toss and had gotten his helmet on to hit for Dick Schofield, but when Junior Felix’s home run tied the score in the 11th, Jack Howell had to wait a bit longer.

“I was thinking there was a pretty good chance I was going to hit for Schofield or (Luis) Sojo,” Howell said, “so I had to stay ready. Within a period of two or three hitters, I knew there was a chance I’d get in there.”

Given the opportunity to hit for Sojo, Howell made the most of it. His drive to the warning track in left with one out in the 11th scored Schofield, capping the Angels’ second comeback of the game and giving them a 6-5 victory over the Cleveland Indians Tuesday night before 20,740 at Anaheim Stadium.

Cleveland took a 4-0 lead after five innings against starter Scott Lewis, only to see the Angels pull even on four unearned runs in the sixth. The Indians took a 5-4 lead in the top of the 11th on a balk call against Bryan Harvey (1-0), but Felix’s first home run as an Angel made it 5-5. Schofield then singled to right and went to third on Luis Polonia’s single to right. He scored on Howell’s long single off Doug Jones (0-2).

“In that situation, I just wanted to get a good pitch up in the (strike) zone,” Howell said. “He throws a changeup that he likes to keep down, but I was looking for a pitch up, so even if I didn’t hit it real well, I could at least get a sacrifice fly.”

He got a fastball that was up, and lifted it far enough to give the Angels their first come-from-behind triumph of the season. They had lost the previous six games in which opponents scored first.

“One thing for sure is everybody battled,” said Manager Doug Rader, whose club had lost nine of its previous 13 games. “It would have been easy to roll over and play dead on more than one occasion. They deserve credit. It’s a lot more difficult than people might think.”

Felix had been having a difficult time at the plate and was hitless in four at-bats against Cleveland left-handers. But the appearance of Jones, a right-hander, allowed the switch-hitting Felix to hit left-handed for the first time in the 11th, and he tagged Jones’ 0-and-1 pitch.

“I don’t know what happened with me. I didn’t see the ball good,” Felix said. “That time (when he homered) I hit left-handed and I got more confidence left-handed.

“We just need to win some games, and we’ll see what happens. Every day I’m going out there and I just want to do my job and do the best I can.”

Rader said the balk was a result of Harvey stopping his motion after realizing the sign from catcher Lance Parrish wasn’t the pitch he wanted to throw.

Chris James had opened the 11th by reaching on third baseman Gary Gaetti’s fielding error. James was sacrificed to second, moved to third on a grounder and scored on the balk, the second against the Angels’ pitchers this season. Jim Abbott was also called for one.

Cleveland starter Greg Swindell pitched nine innings, striking out nine and giving up nine hits. Lewis failed to make it out of the fifth inning for the second time in four starts this season, giving up all four runs.

The Indians took a 1-0 lead in the first and extended that to 3-0 in the fourth, the first of those runs coming on Albert Belle’s fourth homer of the season, a 400-foot drive.

James then beat out a grounder to third and went to second on Sandy Alomar’s single to right. Carlos Baerga also singled to right, but James slipped rounding third and headed back to the bag. As he returned, he signaled Alomar to stop, but Alomar wasn’t looking and both ended up at third.

Angel right fielder Dave Winfield threw the ball to first baseman Wally Joyner, who darted across the infield and tagged Alomar and James, just to be sure. Alomar was out.

But the Angels weren’t out of the inning. After Jeff Manto popped up to Joyner in foul territory, Jerry Browne singled beneath the glove of a diving Joyner, scoring James.

The Indians added another run in the fifth to make it 4-0 as Mark Eichhorn, the second of five Angel pitchers, came on in relief of Lewis.

The four runs were a bonanza for Swindell, who had received a total of four runs in his previous four starts, but the Indians’ defense undermined his efforts with two errors in the sixth.