Fabregas, Percival in Charge

Jorge Fabregas stood at home plate in the eighth inning watching the ball sail toward the right-field seats, not as an ego-driven power hitter might admire his handiwork. No, Fabregas stared as if he couldn’t believe it.

Finally, as the ball bounced around in the empty stands, he began to run the bases. In a moment he would stomp home plate with the winning run in the Angels’ 6-5 victory over Detroit Monday at Anaheim Stadium.

“For a second, I thought it was going to go foul,” he said. “I didn’t want to show too much emotion. I didn’t want to show up the other team.”

Fabregas simply isn’t a home run hitter, so he was to be forgiven for standing and observing. With two homers in 391 major league at-bats, it was a sight worth savoring.

His only other homer came against Jason Bere of the Chicago White Sox last June 18. That one came in his 181st career at-bat, the most of an major leaguer without a home run at that time.

Rare or not, Fabregas’ homer enabled the Angels to complete a four-game sweep of Detroit and a six-game sweep of the homestand. It was their first sweep of six games or more at Anaheim Stadium since 1982 and a huge boost to the Angels, who were 5-8 after losing two straight to Seattle last week.

“It means a lot,” Fabregas said. “It’s special. We won the game. We got the sweep.”

To be sure, Fabregas had a bit of help before an announced crowd of 17,039 Monday.

Troy Percival struck out the side in the ninth inning to record his American League-leading seventh save, looking like the Angels’ closer of the present rather than the future.

“It’s kind of fun to catch him,” Fabregas said. “It was all fastballs. What else are we going to throw?”

Mike James pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief to pick up his fourth victory, tying Seattle’s Randy Johnson for the league lead.

It took starter Chuck Finley all of three batters to give up as many hits as in his last start. He overwhelmed the Blue Jays with a three-hitter last Wednesday, far and away his finest outing this year.

Monday, Chad Curtis led off with a single. Mark Lewis doubled. Alan Trammell singled. And Finley’s night was just starting.

But Tiger starter Felipe Lira still had to fight his way through the Angel batting order. And that proved to be a chore.

By the end of the first inning, it was 2-2. After three, it was 3-3. And it was 5-5 entering the eighth.

Chili Davis hit a two-run homer in the first, Tim Salmon delivered a run-scoring double in the third and Jim Edmonds added a two-run homer in the fifth as the Angels won their ninth one-run game.

“When you’re winning by one run that often, it means a lot of good things are happening,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “It means you’re executing offensively and your bullpen is doing a good job.”

One key for the Angels was their continued mastery of Cecil Fielder in this four-game series. Fielder came to Anaheim Stadium Friday leading the American League with nine homers.

This morning, he’s still at nine. Fielder was 0 for 14 in the series, reaching base only on a third-inning walk Monday.

Retiring second baseman Mark Lewis was another matter, however.

Lewis, who singled in the game-winning run with two outs in the ninth against the Angels a week ago, didn’t wait until the last minute against Finley. He hammered him right from the start.

Lewis doubled and scored in the first, singled and scored in the third, hit a bases-empty homer in the fifth and doubled in the seventh for his league-leading 10th multiple-hit game.

The Tigers, losers of six straight, needed all the help they could get.

They played without Travis Fryman, who left the club Monday morning for Pensacola, Fla., to be with his wife, Kathleen, who is expecting the couple’s first child. Fryman had a streak of 270 consecutive games played broken.

His was the third-longest streak by an active major leaguer. He was seven behind Chicago’s Frank Thomas and 1,901 behind Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr.