Angels Put End to Their Streak : Baseball: After losing nine in a row, they beat Orioles, 5-3, boost AL West lead to 6 1/2.

Chili Davis woke up Monday morning with a sore throat, a headache and a slight temperature, and he felt drained when he arrived at Camden Yards for a game against the Baltimore Orioles.

The Angels can only hope what he had is contagious.

The designated hitter slipped out of the trainer’s room long enough to swat a three-run home run in the fifth inning, leading the Angels to a 5-3 come-from-behind victory and ending their nine-game losing streak before 42,086.

As one Streak Week--Baltimore’s celebration of Cal Ripken Jr.’s historic assault on Lou Gehrig’s record of consecutive games played--swung into full gear, the Angels put a screeching halt to another, more inglorious week of streaks.

That string of 73 innings in which they didn’t have a lead? Over. That streak of 54 innings without a home run? Gone. That run of 10 games in which lead-off batter Tony Phillips failed to reach base in his first at-bat? History.

That’s also what Ripken will make tonight when he ties Gehrig’s mark of playing in 2,130 consecutive games, and the Angels are excited to be on hand for the Oriole shortstop’s incredible achievement.

But they came to Baltimore with more pressing concerns, as was clearly evidenced when rookie Troy Percival zipped a seventh-inning curveball under Ripken’s chin, much to the disgust of the Camden Yards faithful, who booed Percival lustily.

How dare he risk injuring Ripken?

“Nobody wants to see Cal’s record broken, but no one in here wants to lose another game the rest of the year, either,” said Percival, the flame-throwing right-hander who didn’t allow a hit in the seventh and eighth innings Monday.

“He’s hit me hard in the past, and I had to back him off the plate. I think before I was afraid to come in on him, but after losing nine straight, I’ll come inside on anybody. I was tired of losing. It’s a funk we got caught in, and I was ready to turn this thing around.”

It was the fearless performance of the rookie Percival and the perseverance of several Angel veterans that ended their longest losing streak since 1993 (10 games) and increased the Angel lead in the American League West to 6 1/2 games.

Left-hander Jim Abbott gave the Angels their first quality start in two weeks, holding the Orioles hitless from the fourth through sixth innings after giving up three runs on seven hits, including Ripken’s bases-empty homer, in the first three.

Phillips, the 36-year-old third baseman, had three hits and sparked a four-run fifth with a two-out, solo home run, his 22nd of the season, and Davis followed singles by Jim Edmonds and Tim Salmon with his blast into the left-center field bleachers off Oriole starter Jamie Moyer.

“That two-out rally was dynamite,” Abbott (10-7) said. “I know Chili wasn’t feeling well, but it was great that he was able to suck it up and get the big hit for us today.”

Percival, who has a 0.28 earned-run average in his last 25 outings (one earned run in 32 1/3 innings), breezed through the seventh and eighth innings, and closer Lee Smith pitched a scoreless ninth for his 32nd save, but not without a scare.

Harold Baines opened the ninth with a single, Bret Barberie walked, and pinch-runner Curtis Goodwin and Barberie advanced on Jarvis Brown’s sacrifice bunt.

But Smith struck out leadoff batter Brady Anderson and second baseman Jeff Huson, the final out punctuated by catcher Jorge Fabregas, who leaped while thrusting his glove into the air.

“He said he felt like we had just won a World Series game,” Smith said of Fabregas.

Davis celebrated with a nap. He emerged from the trainer’s room groggy and relieved.

“I told you we’d win another game before the year was out,” he said.

Davis hopes the victory will help the Angels put behind them the bad habits they acquired during the skid--putting too much pressure on themselves, trying to hit too many home runs, dwelling on bad breaks.

“You get into a slump and pitchers feel they have to throw shutouts, you get a three-run deficit and everyone wants to hit a homer instead of taking a single and letting the next guy pick you up,” Davis said.

“It’s funny how things work out. I wasn’t even thinking home run up there. I was pretty tired and just wanted to hit the ball.”