Harkey Bails Out Bullpen : Baseball: After 13 days off, he pitches 6 2/3 scoreless innings of relief, giving Percival and Smith a night off.

Mike Harkey’s last start was August 27, a 4-0 loss to Baltimore during which he gave up 11 hits and three runs in 5 1/3 innings. He surrendered his spot in the rotation to make way for the return of Shawn Boskie, who had been sidelined with tendinitis in his elbow.

Saturday night, in the most important game of the Angel season thus far, Harkey replaced Boskie. Working on 13 days rest, he shook off the rust, rose to the occasion and threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings as the Angels stayed alive to play another day with a 9-3 victory over Oakland.

Harkey left in the ninth after giving up a one-out single to pinch-hitter Danny Tartabull and a walk to Stan Javier and received a nice ovation from the crowd of 27,026. It didn’t match the curtain-call roar that accompanied three-run homers by Chili Davis and J.T. Snow, but you can bet the Angels appreciated Harkey’s performance as much as any swing of the bat.

How big was Harkey’s outing, which not only allowed the Angels to dream about the playoffs for at least one more night but also gave their bullpen a much-needed rest?

We won’t know for sure until today, but setup man Troy Percival had worked three games in a row, closer Lee Smith four. If today’s game comes down to those two--and the Angels are praying it does--Harkey may be a hero.

“He came up as big as anyone has all year,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “He saved the bullpen and that is a really big lift.

“This says a lot about a guy doing his work down in the bullpen and staying ready.”

Harkey, who had thrown two innings in 25 days, said it was more a mental battle than a physical feat.

“You do your work but it’s more about staying in the right frame of mind mentally,” he said. “You can’t be thinking you’re not pitching because you’re not good enough. You just have to deal with it.”

The Angels scored eight runs in the middle three innings, but the game may have turned on the first three when Oakland scored three times and left the bases loaded twice.

The Angels took the field knowing that a loss meant the end of their season and they showed it. Boskie walked two of the first three batters he faced and the other, Jose Herrera, reached first when his dying line drive ended up in--and then out--of the glove of a sliding Tim Salmon in right. But the Angels got off easy when Mark McGwire’s pop fly to right dropped in but ended up in a run-scoring force play and Geronimo Berroa hit into a double play.

Oakland took a 3-0 lead in the second on run-scoring hits by Mike Bordick and Stan Javier. That was the end for Boskie and a new beginning for Harkey, who had been released by Oakland in mid-July and was happy to show the A’s that they might have made a mistake.

“I had surprisingly good command of my breaking stuff, but once you’re up here, you’re supposed to be able to go when you’re called on,” Harkey said. “I was just trying to go as hard as I could for as long as I could.”