Edmonds Turns On the Ignition : Baseball: His long home run at Tiger Stadium gets the Angels started, and Salmon’s shot in 10th finishes Detroit, 8-5.

As the plane carrying Angel closer Lee Smith was circling above Detroit on Thursday night, center fielder Jim Edmonds sat in the eye of a spectacular thunderstorm, taking pleasure in the downpour and lightning that caused a 1-hour 18-minute rain delay in Tiger Stadium.

“That storm pumped me up,” Edmonds said. “I stayed in the dugout and watched it. I love that stuff. Man, I was waiting for a tornado. That’s Mother Nature at her best.”

So pumped up was Edmonds that his two-run homer in the sixth inning was a seemingly supernatural shot that caromed off the light tower on the right-center field roof and awakened the Angel offense.

Edmonds’ blast, which traveled an estimated 444 feet, helped the Angels erase a four-run deficit en route to an 8-5, 10-inning victory over the Tigers before a paid crowd of 13,837.

The Angels scored single runs in the seventh and eighth innings to tie the score, 5-5, and right fielder Tim Salmon hit a three-run home run into the upper deck in left field in the 10th for an 8-5 lead.

Troy Percival relieved starter Mark Langston and pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings, and Smith, who, because of numerous travel delays, arrived at the stadium as the game was starting, pitched a scoreless 10th for his 21st save.

The Angels stayed in a first-place tie with Texas with their 19th come-from-behind victory, eighth in their last at-bat.

“We just have heart,” said Tony Phillips, who had three singles and scored three runs. “These young kids don’t have brains in their heads--they don’t know when to quit. It doesn’t matter if we’re down. We just keep fighting.”

Smith has given the Angels a feeling they can’t lose games when they’re ahead. The right-hander, who has 21 saves in 23 opportunities, struck out two of four batters in the 10th inning, including No. 3 hitter Travis Fryman, who was caught looking at a third-strike slider on the outside corner.

Smith almost didn’t make it. After Tuesday night’s All-Star game, he flew home to Louisiana on Wednesday and was scheduled to arrive in Detroit about three hours before Thursday’s game.

Two planes were grounded because of mechanical difficulties during his layover in St. Louis, and when he finally winged off to Detroit, the storm forced the plane into a 45-minute holding pattern.

“We don’t need him until late in the game, anyway,” Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said.

For five innings, it didn’t appear the Angels would need Smith at all. The Tigers held a 5-1 lead on the strength of a two-run first inning and three-run fourth, and Tiger rookie Jose Lima, just called up from triple-A Toledo, had given up a run and only two hits through five innings.

Then fortune stepped in. Fryman, the Tiger first baseman, lost Edmonds’ popup amid a swirling wind in the sixth inning and it dropped in foul territory.

Edmonds then hit a two-run homer, which stirred memories of Reggie Jackson’s 1971 All-Star game blast in Tiger Stadium and would have been the 28th homer to clear the roof since 1938 had it not hit the lights.

“I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t want to walk into this park and hit one off the roof one of these days,” said Edmonds, who pulled the Angels to within 5-3 with his 14th homer. “I wasn’t trying to do that . . . but now I want to go over it.”

After Garret Anderson doubled with one out in the seventh, Detroit catcher John Flaherty over-ran Rex Hudler’s pop behind the plate. Hudler then singled, scoring Anderson to make it 5-4.

Gary DiSarcina walked in the eighth, stole second, and, after Phillips walked, took third on reliever Kevin Wickander’s wild pitch.

Edmonds’ fielder’s choice grounder to first scored DiSarcina to make it 5-5, and Salmon won it with his team-leading 16th homer of the season in the 10th.

“Jim really crushed that homer,” Lachemann said. “But as nice as that was, I think I liked Tim Salmon’s better.”