Harvey Makes a Getaway : Angels: Relief ace settles down to save 7-5 victory over Tigers in last game of home stand.

Bryan Harvey knew Buck Rodgers was headed toward the mound, but the Angel reliever avoided making eye contact with his manager.

If he pretended not to see Rodgers, maybe Rodgers would pretend he didn’t see Harvey give up three consecutive hits to the Detroit Tigers and put the tying run on first base in the ninth inning Wednesday.

“I didn’t think he was coming to get me, but I wasn’t really going to look at him,” Harvey said. “He said, ‘I’m not coming to get you.’ Once he said that, I walked up and talked to him.”

Rodgers’ advice was the usual “trust your stuff,” but Harvey took those words to heart. He struck out Travis Fryman on three pitches, the last a check-swing attempt, to save the Angels’ 7-5 victory and send them off on a nine-game trip with uplifted spirits.

“It was very important for us to win this one. It builds confidence,” said Harvey, who gave up the decisive home run to Fryman in Detroit’s 4-2 victory Tuesday night. “I haven’t had the best of luck against Detroit in the past, so it’s a good one for me, too.”

A four-run rally in the eighth inning against Walt Terrell (0-5), Mike Munoz and Les Lancaster had given the Angels a 7-4 lead, and Harvey quickly recorded the first two outs in the ninth by striking out Chad Kreuter and getting Scott Livingstone to fly to left. But Tony Phillips homered to right, the Tigers’ third homer that also included bases-empty drives by Mark Carreon (first inning) and Rob Deer (fifth) against starter Chuck Finley, and the Anaheim Stadium crowd of 28,331 began to murmur when Carreon dumped a single to right-center. Alan Trammell then beat out a hopper to third, prompting Rodgers’ visit to the mound.

“I just said, ‘You’re throwing good. Don’t change,’ ” Rodgers said. “There was no magic.”

No magic, only three strikes that produced Harvey’s 11th save in 12 opportunities and made a winner of Steve Frey (2-0), who had struck out pinch-hitter Dave Bergman in the eighth inning with the bases loaded.

“I got behind to Phillips and Carreon, and Trammell just hit a hopper that there wasn’t nothing you could do about,” Harvey said. “I had to get Fryman. He was hunting for a heater and he never got it. I was fortunate I threw a forkball close to the plate and he swung at it.”

Frey wasn’t merely lucky, he was good. He relieved Mark Eichhorn in the eighth with a run in and the bases loaded. Eichhorn had struck out a badly fooled Deer on a full count for the second out of the inning, leaving Frey to record one out.

One big out.

“It looks easy in the paper,” Frey said. “You see the paper and you say, ‘Oh, he pitched only a third of an inning. Big deal.’ But then you’ve got to say the bases were loaded, we were down by one run and it was a situation where we can’t afford to give up another run. Then you see it isn’t easy.”

Frey got two called strikes, but Bergman worked him to a full count before he struck out swinging.

“Ike and I came into two difficult situations and we both came out on top,” said Frey, who has stranded all eight runners he has inherited this season. “The team did the rest. This was a great comeback win.”

The Angels had to come back twice to secure their fifth victory in their seven-game home stand and win their first game in four against the Tigers this season.

Carreon’s homer to right-center gave the Tigers an early lead, but the Angels overcame that on Rene Gonzales’ two-run homer against Eric King in the second. Detroit tied it in the fifth on Deer’s homer and again in the sixth on singles by Carreon, Trammell and Fryman. Finley’s day ended after he issued a full-count walk to Mickey Tettleton, loading the bases for Deer.

Eichhorn, who gave up a game-winning home run to Tettleton last Thursday in Detroit, struck Deer out with the bases loaded in the sixth and eighth innings Wednesday.

“Ike and Frey kept us in it and gave us a chance to win it in the eighth inning,” Rodgers said.

Given that chance, they didn’t falter. Junior Felix, who had collected his 29th RBI and given the Angels a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning when he singled home Von Hayes, led off the eighth with a single to center. He sped to third on Hubie Brooks’ single through the right side and scored the tying run on Gary Gaetti’s single to left.

Chad Curtis, who ran for Brooks after Gaetti’s single moved Brooks to second, took third on Bobby Rose’s sacrifice. Gaetti took second. The Tigers then walked Gonzales to pitch to Mike Fitzgerald, who struck out, but Gary DiSarcina walked on four pitches--”all borderline except the last one,” he said--to bring in Curtis with the go-ahead run. Luis Polonia drove home Gaetti and Gonzales with a single to left.

“It’s good to see everybody playing,” DiSarcina said. “It’s fun to be on a team like this where everybody’s stepping up when they have to.”