Angel Bullpen Does Its Job

Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann wasn’t going to take a chance with this lead Thursday night. Or so he thought.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the sixth inning, Lachemann summoned reliever Mike James, a set-up man whom Lachemann normally reserves for the eighth inning.

But these are not normal times for the Angels, who blew an eight-run lead and lost to Seattle Monday night and were on the verge of losing a six-run lead to the Toronto Blue Jays Thursday night.

James didn’t make much of a first impression, giving up a two-run single to Carlos Delgado that pulled Toronto to within a run and elicited groans from the Anaheim Stadium crowd of 25,083.

But James rebounded with 2 1/3 scoreless innings and closer Troy Percival pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve a 9-6 victory, which came with a huge sigh of relief.

Todd Frohwirth, called up from triple-A Vancouver Tuesday, bailed starter Scott Sanderson out of a fourth-inning jam before giving up three unearned runs in the sixth--the first unearned runs the Angels have given up this season.

James’ extended outing earned him the victory, and Percival, who hadn’t pitched since last Friday, gave up only one hit to the heart of the Blue Jay order in the ninth to record his fourth save.

How surprised was James to pitch in the sixth?

“I thought it was the seventh inning,” he said. “All I know is the phone rang, and I throw until they tell me to stop. I had no idea what inning it was when we came to bat after I threw a complete inning [in the seventh]. I thought that was the eighth, and that I was done.

“But I figured out real quick we were in the bottom of the seventh, so I didn’t let my concentration wander.”

Lachemann said his pitching decisions Thursday weren’t so much influenced by Monday’s bullpen collapse but by the sixth reliever in his bullpen--Shawn Boskie was pulled from the rotation and was available Thursday.

“Having one more body, you can do things a little differently,” Lachemann said. “If you’re going to preserve the lead, you have to be more careful.”

It also helps to have a Gold Glove first baseman. With the Angels clinging to a 7-6 lead, J.T. Snow made a potential game-saving play, diving to back-hand Alex Gonzalez’s grounder and tossing to James, who applied the tag on the diving Gonzalez for the first out of the eighth.

Rookie third baseman George Arias, who entered with a .216 average, hit a three-run home run in the first inning, his first major league homer and first RBIs since opening night.

Edmonds and Snow also had RBI singles in the inning, and the Angels added another run in the second, but they nearly frittered away the lead. Joe Carter drilled a bases-empty home run in the fourth and walked in a run to make it 6-2.

Frohwirth replaced Sanderson and threw a wild pitch, allowing Olerud to score. But Frohwirth settled down, retiring Gonzalez and Otis Nixon on fly balls to end the inning and throwing a scoreless fifth.

Trouble returned in the sixth, though. Frohwirth hit Olerud with a pitch and, after two outs, Gonzalez reached on a bloop single. Velarde, the Angel second baseman, couldn’t make a back-hand grab of Otis Nixon’s grounder up the middle, and the error led to three unearned runs.

But James (3-1), who gave up a ninth-inning, game-winning hit in the Angels’ 5-4 loss in Detroit Sunday, was able to shake it off.