Angels Make the Right Calls

Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann has been criticized for his dogmatic approach to late-inning decisions, slotting relievers into well-defined--almost rigid--roles and using them only in situations he believes they’re suited for.

But Lachemann played a hunch Wednesday night and it paid off, as the Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3, before a chilled 7,051 in County Stadium, extending their win streak to seven, the last five coming by one run.

The Angels, now 10-2 in one-run games, erased a 2-1 deficit with three runs in the sixth inning, which was highlighted by Tim Salmon’s RBI single, Chili Davis’ RBI double and Garret Anderson’s sacrifice fly.

Jim Edmonds, who hit his seventh homer of the season in the first, also doubled and scored in the sixth, as the Angels beat Ben McDonald for the first time since 1994. McDonald entered with a career 10-2 record and 1.95 earned-run average against the Angels.

But as it has been throughout this Angel win streak, solid relief pitching was most responsible for the victory. Only this time, the names were changed.

With a one-run lead in the eighth inning, Lachemann usually goes to his set-up man, which has been the highly successful Mike James.

But Mark Eichhorn, who pitched three scoreless innings in a 6-5 victory over Detroit on Sunday, got the Angels out of a seventh-inning jam Wednesday night and appeared to be throwing the ball well, so Lachemann stuck with what he thought was a hot hand.

Good move. Eichhorn, usually a middle or long reliever, retired the Brewers easily in the eighth before giving way to Troy Percival, who retired the side in order in the ninth for his major league-leading eighth save.

The decision to go with Percival--instead of regular closer Lee Smith--was more common sense than hunch.

Smith, trying to shake the effects of an off-season knee injury, came off the disabled list Tuesday, and Lachemann wants to ease him back into the closing role. All Percival has done in Smith’s absence is establish himself as one of baseball’s best closers, with a 0.00 ERA in 10 innings.

Both Smith, baseball’s all-time saves leader, and Percival, the up-and-coming closer, warmed up in the top of the ninth, but Lachemann’s call went for Percival, who seemed sheepish about leaving Smith in his bullpen wake.

“I have too much respect for Lee Smith to even comment on all of this,” Percival said. “I don’t know what’s going on, and I really don’t know what to expect.”

If the Angels had a three-run lead, Lachemann said he would have gone to Smith, “but I didn’t think it was fair to him right now to put him in that situation,” Lachemann said. “His time will come. He’ll be there.”

Lachemann said Smith will be his closer when he shows he’s physically sound, and he insists the eventual decision to demote Percival to set-up man is not growing more difficult.

“I know what Troy can do,” Lachemann said, “but I also know how much better a team we are if Lee does what he did last year [37 saves], Troy goes to his role [as set-up man] and James moves back to pitching the seventh.”

Lachemann’s bullpen options seem to grow each day, and added to the list Wednesday was Shawn Boskie, the recently demoted starter who allowed only one run in 3 1/3 innings in relief of injured starter Scott Sanderson.

Sanderson left in the fourth inning when he strained his right groin delivering a pitch that Matt Mieske hit for a leadoff double. The 39-year-old right-hander, who returned from 1995 back surgery to repair a herniated disk, attempted one warm-up pitch before heading to the dugout. The Angels won’t know the extent of the injury for another day or two.

Boskie came on and retired the next three batters and then pitched a scoreless fifth and sixth to earn the victory, as the Angels moved to within a game of first-place Texas.

“We just have to keep riding this until it stops, that’s all we can do,” said Davis, who extended his hitting streak to 10 games. “We’re getting timely hits now, but we’re not really hot. When the hitting and pitching take off together, that’s when things can go really well.”