Snow, Others Also Make ‘Monster’ Plays

Manager Marcel Lachemann called Ryan Hancock’s 13th-inning double play “a monster play,” but it wasn’t the Angels’ only defensive highlight in Sunday’s 8-6 victory over Cleveland.

The Angels, who have slipped from first to ninth in American League fielding percentage, turned four other double plays, one with the bases loaded in the third inning, and first baseman J.T. Snow made two clutch plays.

Shortstop Damion Easley started three of the double plays and second baseman Randy Velarde started the other.

Snow saved a run in the sixth when, with two out and runners on second and third, he fielded Kenny Lofton’s grounder and barely beat one of baseball’s fastest players to first, sliding feet first into the bag while Lofton went in head first.

Snow made a more conventional play to start the seventh, diving to back-hand Julio Franco’s grounder, adjusting in the air to a bad hop, and throwing to reliever Mike James for the out.

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Lachemann on Percival’s 10th-inning strikeout, in which the reliever became the first Angel pitcher to bat since Mark Langston on June 10, 1992: “That’s why, a long time ago, we converted him from a catcher to a pitcher.”

Percival hoped to get a few swings in, but when Tim Salmon singled in front of him, he was asked to bunt against hard-throwing right-hander Eric Plunk. He got his bat on one pitch but missed two others.

“It was a little different having a 95-mph fastball come at you,” Percival said. “The scary part was he threw two pitches on the outside corner and I thought they were going to hit me in the face.”

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Reliever Mark Holzemer, who left the game in the 11th because of a strained muscle underneath his arm, will undergo an MRI today and will probably go on the disabled list. Third baseman Tim Wallach also left the game in the fifth because of an injured index finger on his left hand.