Leading, 9-1, Angels Find Way to Lose

The Angels were waiting for this kind of game, when the hits would cascade from their bats and the runs would flow across the plate like they did for much of 1995, and Monday night, against their American League West Division rivals, it finally came.

But the Angels ran into a Seattle Mariner team with a gusher-like offense of its own, and not even an eight-run lead, built on a career night by a player who wasn’t expecting to start, was safe.

Seattle, which rallied from 13 games out to overtake the Angels for the West title last season, delivered Comeback II, scoring seven late runs to forge a wild 11-10 victory before 36,960 in the Kingdome.

With the game tied, 10-10, Rich Amaral opened the eighth with a walk off reliever Mark Eichhorn. Amaral stole second, Ken Griffey walked and Edgar Martinez lifted a drive to deep right field.

Tim Salmon raced back and leaped at the wall, but the ball bounced off his glove for an error to load the bases. Jay Buhner then lined a single up the middle for an 11-10 lead. Eichhorn struck out Doug Strange and Russ Davis, and John Marzano grounded to second to end the inning.

Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who had three hits, opened the ninth with a single to center off Norm Charlton. Randy Velarde smashed a grounder to the shortstop hole, but Alex Rodriguez made a nice back-hand stab to start a double play.

Charlton then got pinch hitter Tim Wallach on a game-ending groundout to third, completing the biggest comeback in the Mariners’ 20-year history--and another collapse for the Angels.

“We battled, but we just pitched very, very poorly, and I won’t stand for it,” Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said, hinting at possible roster moves. “I don’t know what our options are, but I’m going to find out.

“I’m going to sit down with Chuck [Hernandez, Angel pitching coach] and Bill [Bavasi, general manager] and see what we need to do, because I can’t do that to this team. We fought too hard to let this happen. We did not stay aggressive on the mound. We had an eight-run lead and were pitching like we were behind.”

The Angels, who had 17 hits, had a chance to take the lead in the top of the eighth when J.T. Snow walked and was sacrificed to second by Garret Anderson. Charlton struck out George Arias for the second out, and Don Slaught followed with a pinch-hit single to right field.

Angel third base coach Rick Burleson sent Snow, but Buhner, who has one of the strongest outfield arms in baseball, rifled a perfect one-hop throw to Marzano to nail Snow by six steps.

The Angels scored six runs in the fourth inning, four on Mike Aldrete’s second career grand slam, to take a 9-1 lead. Aldrete, who added a double in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fifth, started because designated hitter Chili Davis had back spasms.

Jim Edmonds also had three hits, including a two-run homer in the third, but starting pitcher Shawn Boskie, who allowed six runs in 5 2/3 innings, ran out of gas in the sixth, and Lachemann couldn’t go to preferred set-up man Mike James because he pitched two innings in Sunday’s loss to Detroit.

That left Lachemann with relievers Dennis Springer, Mark Holzemer and Eichhorn, and the trio combined to give up four runs in the seventh inning.

Boskie had given up RBI singles to Rodriguez and Joey Cora in the sixth, and Springer bailed him out by getting Amaral on an inning-ending pop-up, the Angels still holding a 10-6 lead.

But Springer ran into trouble in the seventh, walking Griffey, giving up a single to Martinez and hitting Buhner to load the bases. Lachemann summoned Holzemer, who hit pinch hitter Ricky Jordan, released by the Angels late in spring training.

Eichhorn replaced Holzemer, but Davis drilled his first pitch into the gap in left-center field, scoring three runs for a 10-10 tie. After Marzano’s sacrifice, Eichhorn got out of the jam, but a Mariner team that had won its previous four games by the combined score of 41-14 was right back in it.