Fortugno Has Solid Debut as Angels Win : Baseball: He leaves with game tied in sixth, then teammates score on a balk and an error to beat the Blue Jays, 5-3.

In Italian, Tim Fortugno’s last name translates to “fortunate one.”

He wasn’t fortunate enough to be the winning pitcher in the Angels’ 5-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday, but simply making it to the major leagues--and pitching 5 2/3 strong innings--kept the rookie left-hander smiling long after the Angels had recorded their seventh triumph in their last eight games.

“My whole dream was getting here. My other dream once I got here, was staying here,” said Fortugno, who became the oldest Angel player to make his debut, at the age of 30 years, three months and nine days.

“I traveled many miles in the minor leagues. My feeling was that this was still the game of baseball. I pitched in double A and triple A and it’s the same game.”

Fortugno, a Huntington Beach resident who gave out 50 passes to friends and relatives, left after giving up a home run to John Olerud and a walk to Candy Maldonado in the sixth inning. He left with the sound of applause from the 21,090 fans at Anaheim Stadium. “I had over 100 people here,” he said, “but it felt like everybody was with me.”

His strongest allies, though, were Luis Polonia, Junior Felix and the fumble-fingered Blue Jays. Three errors and a balk by reliever Pat Hentgen (5-2) contributed to four Angel runs, including the go-ahead and fifth runs.

“We cannot rely on guys hitting the ball out of the ballpark. We have to hit and run and bunt guys over,” said Polonia, who walked twice and collected three singles to create a streak of reaching base in seven consecutive plate appearances. “Now we are in the game. We’re executing like we should be. When we lose, it’s when we don’t have all these things. Now, we know how we can play the game.”

They played an opportunistic game Monday, one that reduced the Blue Jays’ AL East lead over Baltimore to three games.

A walk to Polonia and a single by Luis Sojo put runners on first and third in the bottom of the first inning, a situation that produced a run when Maldonado dropped Felix’s fly to left. A double by Rene Gonzales and a run-scoring single by Gary Gaetti built a 2-0 lead for Fortugno in the second, and that became 3-0 before the inning was over. Polonia beat out a grounder to third and took off for second on Todd Stottlemyre’s first pitch to Sojo, rattling catcher Pat Borders into making a wild throw that sailed into center field. Gaetti scored on the play.

It was Polonia’s 32nd stolen base, tying him with Cleveland’s Kenny Lofton and Milwaukee’s Pat Listach for the AL lead.

Singles by Manuel Lee and Roberto Alomar and a balk by Fortugno gave Toronto its first run, in the third inning, and two singles and a fielder’s choice grounder by Jeff Kent cut the lead to 3-2 in the fourth. Fortugno rebounded to retire the side in order in the fifth, getting Devon White to take a third strike for Fortugno’s sixth strikeout of the game, but he didn’t finish the sixth.

Olerud, who is 13 for 24 against the Angels this season, slammed a 2-and-0 pitch 415 feet to right to tie the score, and when Fortugno walked Maldonado, interim Manager John Wathan summoned Chuck Crim (4-2).

“There wasn’t much he did out there I didn’t like,” Wathan said of Fortugno, who will get at least one more start while Jim Abbott recovers from a pulled rib-cage muscle. “He pitched a great game. . . . I looked for a lot more deep counts than there were. He did a tremendous job.”

Crim did his job by pitching 1 1/3 perfect innings and became the winning pitcher when the Angels scored in the seventh and eighth. Joe Grahe pitched two scoreless innings for his sixth save in six opportunities.

Wathan liked what he saw of Fortugno, whom he praised as poised and assured. Fortugno liked what he saw in his first major league game.

“I’m just happy I was here,” he said. “I just wanted to keep us in the game and see how far I could go.”