Angels Get Best of a Showdown : Baseball: Lee Smith retires Cal Ripken for his 16th save and a 5-4 victory.

Lower ticket prices. Improve and expand marketing efforts. Devise ways to speed up the game’s pace. All might help bring baseball fans who are still upset about the strike back to the park.

Want a better idea? Just give them more games such as Sunday’s between the Angels and Baltimore Orioles in Camden Yards.

There was a mammoth home run by a seldom-used utility player, three game-saving, Gold Glove-caliber defensive plays, a rousing comeback by the home team, a juicy managerial decision that was ripe for second-guessing, and a classic confrontation between a pitcher and batter, both future Hall of Famers, with the tying and winning runs on base and a crowd of 45,975 on its feet in the bottom of the ninth.

“It was really special, power on power, a duel, may the best man win,” Angel second baseman Rex Hudler said of the Lee Smith-Cal Ripken showdown. “What a matchup. It was a pleasure playing defense during that.”

The pleasure was all the Angels’ after Smith got Ripken to line out to center field on a full-count pitch for the final out of the Angels’ 5-4 victory.

It was Smith’s 16th consecutive save, which broke the major league single-season record for saves in consecutive appearances, set by Doug Jones of Cleveland in 1988. Credit Smith with a scare too.

Smith, a right-hander, took over for setup man Troy Percival in the ninth and walked Harold Baines to lead off the inning. Pinch-runner Brady Anderson moved to second on Curtis Goodwin’s sacrifice bunt and to third on Kevin Bass’ grounder to second.

Up came left-handed hitting first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, who had singled and doubled in his two previous at-bats. Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann decided to intentionally walk Palmeiro and pitch to Ripken, one of the game’s most highly regarded players who had an RBI double and RBI single in his two previous at-bats.

“I looked at the umpire [Vic Voltaggio] and said, ‘I don’t know about this move,’ ” said Hudler, who homered in the first and had a two-run double in the third. “He said, ‘I don’t know about it, either.’ To have enough confidence in Lee to pitch to Cal showed a lot of guts, but that’s what this team is about.”

A similar move in a May 30 game against the Orioles in Anaheim backfired when Ripken, after an intentional walk to Palmeiro, hit a 10th-inning sacrifice fly to give Baltimore a 5-4 victory.

Ripken, who is closing in on Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games record of 2,130, worked the count to 2-2 against Smith, then received a favorable call on a check swing that was ruled a ball.

With the volume in Camden Yards turned up to the highest decibel, Ripken ripped a shot to center that Jim Edmonds easily caught for the final out, which was punctuated by Hudler’s flying, fist-pumping celebration behind second base.

“I just lost it after that,” said Hudler, who played in place of injured starter Damion Easley. “[Right fielder] Tim Salmon had to help me off the field. I was just drained, physically and emotionally.”

Hudler was pumped in the first inning when he became the first player in Camden Yards history to homer into the second deck in left field. He added a two-run double in the third, and Salmon followed with a two-run homer for a 5-2 lead.

The Orioles chipped away against Angel starter Mark Langston, as Palmeiro singled and scored on Ripken’s double in the sixth to make it 5-3, and Curtis Goodwin singled, moved to third on Palmeiro’s double and scored on Ripken’s single to make it 5-4 in the seventh.

But Baltimore’s comeback bid was thwarted by third baseman Carlos Martinez, left fielder Tony Phillips, shortstop Gary DiSarcina and Percival, the rookie reliever.

With runners on first and second in the sixth, Martinez made a diving, backhand stop of Jeff Manto’s shot down the line and, from his knees, made a two-hop throw to first baseman J.T. Snow in time for the out. Langston retired Chris Hoiles (popup) and Bret Barberie (strikeout) to end the inning.

“I was ready to run in and pick it up,” Phillips said of Manto’s grounder. “That was a double, but Carlos’ play was a game-saver.”

So was Phillips’ play in the seventh when he robbed Bass of a two-run homer with a leaping catch amid several souvenir-hungry fans at the top of the left-field wall.

“I think Tony actually caught that between the gloves of two fans,” said Edmonds, the Angel center fielder. “It was definitely a foot over the wall. It was a homer.”

Two batters later, DiSarcina made a diving stop of Ripken’s ground-ball single up the middle, which prevented Palmeiro from scoring the tying run from second.

Percival gave up Ripken’s hit, but then he got Jeffrey Hammonds to fly out to end the seventh and retired all three batters he faced in the eighth for his seventh “hold” of the season.

“I tried to screw it up and the defense wouldn’t let me,” said Langston (5-1), who gave up four runs on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings.

“Carlos made a great play, then Tony’s, DiSar’s, and the bullpen . . . I don’t feel like I’ve pitched well all year and the team has really picked me up. One of these days I’d like to pick them up.”