Aldrete Joins Homer Club, Angels Win

Long before his pinch-hit home run sparked the Angels’ 2-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night, Angel reserve Mike Aldrete got an earful from fellow sub Rex Hudler during afternoon batting practice in the Skydome.

“He reminded me that all four bench guys [Jack Howell, Hudler, Don Slaught and Tim Wallach] homered for their first hits of the season,” said Aldrete, whose eighth-inning blast off Juan Guzman snapped an 18-inning scoreless streak.

“Obviously he was trying to put a little pressure on me, but I said, ‘No, Hud. That’s not how I hit. I go up there thinking single.’ But there he was after the homer, yelling and screaming at me . . . it’s hard not to get caught up in the Hud.”

Aldrete’s pinch-hit homer--the Angels’ second of the season after only one in 1995--sent a surge through a lifeless dugout, arousing a slumbering team that had only four hits, was trailing, 1-0, and in danger of being shut out for the second consecutive game.

Reliever Mark Holzemer then bailed starter Shawn Boskie out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the eighth, and Garret Anderson homered for the winning run in the top of the ninth.

Troy Percival retired the Blue Jays in the ninth with an assist from Anderson and a few placid Toronto fans, who were part of the smallest baseball crowd (25,446) in the Skydome’s seven-year history.

Blue Jay catcher Charlie O’Brien opened the ninth with a towering drive toward the left-field corner.

Backspin carried it toward the field and Anderson, waiting patiently in front of the wall, took advantage of his 6-foot-3 frame, leaping and reaching into the bleachers in foul territory to make the catch.

“The fans didn’t even bother getting in my way,” Anderson said. “In New York, someone probably would have pushed me out of the way for that one.”

Percival struck out Alex Gonzalez and, after Otis Nixon’s single, got Domingo Cedeno to ground out, securing Holzemer’s first major league victory.

All four of the Angels’ victories have been by one run, three coming in their final at-bat.

“It’s a funny game,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “Boskie works his tail off, makes 107 pitches, and a guy comes in and makes two pitches and gets the win. But if he doesn’t make those two pitches, we don’t win the game.”

Joe Carter had doubled with one out in the eighth, and Boskie, who allowed five hits and struck out seven in 7 2/3 innings, intentionally walked John Olerud.

Boskie picked Carter off second, but hit Ed Sprague and walked Carlos Delgado to load the bases. Lachemann summoned the left-handed Holzemer, who retired Shawn Green on a grounder to first.

“I was trying to be aggressive and get a good lead, but it was a mistake on my part,” Carter said of the pickoff.

Boskie, who was bombed by the Chicago White Sox for six runs in 4 2/3 innings in his last start, gave up a double to Nixon and Cedeno’s run-scoring single in the first.

But in a near carbon copy of his 2-0 victory in Toronto last May, when Devon White opened the game with a triple but didn’t score, Boskie settled down immediately, and no Blue Jay reached second base again until the eighth.

“To his credit, he comes off a bad outing, gives up a double and a single, he could be thinking, ‘Holy . . . what next?’ ” Lachemann said. “Then he gets the three, four and five hitters out. That was huge for him.”

Boskie had to be near perfect to beat Guzman, who went the distance, giving up six hits and striking out nine.

But he grooved a fastball to Aldrete and Anderson reached down for a low fastball, drilling it over the 400-foot sign in center for his first home run and RBI of the season.