Angels Beat Baltimore With Twos of a Kind

Success came in pairs Tuesday night for the Angels, who used two spectacular defensive plays, two solo home runs, two suicide squeeze bunts and two innings of relief from Troy Percival to defeat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-2, before 43,865 insomniacs in Camden Yards.

The struggling Angels hadn’t had a save situation in two weeks, so after Baltimore cut their lead to 4-2 with a run off Percival in the eighth inning, that seemingly ancient question--would Lee Smith pitch the ninth?--arose again.

But with the Angels tacking on another run in the ninth and Percival having pitched only 3 2/3 innings in the previous 18 days, Manager Marcel Lachemann ran his new combination set-up man/closer out for the ninth.

The Orioles threatened when Chris Hoiles singled and Brady Anderson walked with two out--only Percival’s second walk of the season. But with Smith warming in the bullpen, Percival got Luis Polonia on a tapper back to the mound to end the game only 15 minutes before the American League’s 1 a.m. (EDT) curfew.

After a 2-hour 16-minute rain delay, the Angels won for only the second time in nine games but pulled to within six games of first-place Texas in the American League West.

“It was a great effort,” Lachemann said. “About as well as we’ve executed all season.”

Shawn Boskie gave up only three hits in five innings and struck out five for the win. Mike James pitched two scoreless innings of relief and Percival recorded his 12th save, and first since May 3.

Rex Hudler and Don Slaught opened the game with home runs, Randy Velarde laid down two perfect suicide squeeze bunts and added an RBI single in the ninth inning and the Angels saved three runs with their defense.

Center fielder Jim Edmonds’ leaping grab high above the center-field wall robbed Cal Ripken of a two-run homer in the second inning, and shortstop Gary DiSarcina made a diving stop of Mike Devereaux’s two-out grounder with two on in the sixth.

DiSarcina, who had nearly come up with a lunging, back-hand catch of Ripken’s soft liner on the previous play, threw out Devereaux from his knees with a strong, one-hopper to first baseman J.T. Snow from deep in the hole, preserving the Angels’ 3-1 lead.

The Angels added a run in the seventh on Velarde’s second squeeze bunt to take a 4-1 lead.

Percival replaced James in the eighth and gave up a run on Rafael Palmeiro’s double, a wild pitch and Bobby Bonilla’s RBI groundout but got through the ninth with no further damage.

With thick, dark clouds blanketing Camden Yards and a virtual 100% chance of thunderstorms, the stadium grounds crew rolled the tarp onto the field just before the scheduled 7:35 p.m. (EDT) start for what became an oddity of sorts: a 45-minute threat-of-rain delay.

Players and fans waited and the tarp sat on a dry field until, finally, the much-anticipated downpour started at about 8:20 p.m.

The game eventually started at 9:51 p.m. (EDT), and by 9:54 p.m. the Angels had a 2-0 lead after Hudler and Slaught opened with home runs, the sixth time this season the Angels have hit back-to-back homers.

What a nice sight this was for Boskie, who, in his last Camden Yards start, watched Ripken circle the stadium, high-fiving fans during his record-breaking, 2,131st consecutive game last Sept. 6.

But this time only Angels circled the bases.

Hudler, leading off and playing second base for the fourth consecutive game, lined an 0-and-1 pitch from Rick Krivda into the left-field bleachers for his seventh homer of the season and second lead-off homer in as many days in Baltimore.

Slaught followed with a full-count fly ball that carried over the right-field wall for his fourth homer of the season.

Boskie had a no-hitter through three innings but ran into trouble in the fourth when Roberto Alomar singled to right, took third on Palmeiro’s single and scored on Bonilla’s groundout, on which Hudler made a diving stop.

But the Angels came right back in the top of the fifth inning when Snow singled, was balked to second, took third on Anderson’s groundout and scored on Velarde’s squeeze bunt.