Angels Rally, Win in 13

They had come from behind to win seven consecutive games last week, but the Angels found themselves on the wrong end of a comeback Monday night.

Then they got back on the right end, when Randy Velarde singled in Tim Salmon in the 13th to give the Angels a 9-8 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Salmon had doubled to lead off the inning.

First, the Angels blew a five-run lead and trailed by a run in the bottom of the 10th. But Don Slaught’s soft single to right off Chicago closer Roberto Hernandez drove in Velarde to bring the Angels back.

What was left of the Anaheim Stadium crowd of 17,836 saw the White Sox threaten in the top of the 11th off Angel closer Troy Percival when Tony Phillips led off with a single, advanced to second on a passed ball and took third on Darren Lewis’ sacrifice bunt.

Percival intentionally walked Frank Thomas and got Harold Baines to pop to shortstop for the second out. Percival then walked Robin Ventura intentionally to load the bases, but Danny Tartabull, whose homer in the top of the 10th gave Chicago an 8-7 lead, popped to catcher Don Slaught to end the inning.

The Angels then loaded the bases off Hernandez in the bottom of the 11th, but Gary DiSarcina, who had three hits and two RBIs but made two critical errors, flied to shallow right to end the inning.

The Angels had come back in the bottom of the 10th on Slaught’s RBI single off Hernandez, who suffered only his third blown save in 23 opportunities.

Velarde walked to lead off the 10th, took second on DiSarcina’s groundout and third on Darin Erstad’s groundout, the first time the White Sox had retired the rookie center fielder, who had three hits, including his first major league homer in the third inning, and three RBIs.

Slaught then lofted a single just out of the reach of White Sox second baseman Ray Durham, and the Angels were back in it despite a catastrophic seventh inning, when two errors by DiSarcina, the normally sure-handed shortstop, led to three unearned runs--all coming on Phillips’ home run--as the White Sox trimmed a 6-2 deficit to 6-5.

Chili Davis homered to left off Chicago reliever Matt Karchner in the bottom of the seventh for a 7-5 lead, the Angels had set-up man Mike James, who has a 1.55 earned-run average, on the mound in the eighth and Percival preparing for the ninth.

But James, who got Thomas to ground out to end the seventh, gave up Harold Baines’ double to open the eighth. Ventura then followed with a two-run homer to center, tying the score, 7-7. It was the first homer James had given up since May 18, a span of 12 innings.

The White Sox rally ended Angel starter Shawn Boskie’s bid to win his eighth game, a feat the right-hander has never accomplished in his major league career but seemed destined to reach Monday night.

Boskie cruised through the first five innings, retiring 14 in a row after Ventura’s first-inning sacrifice fly, and he was still in good shape after Phillips singled and Thomas doubled in the sixth to cut the lead to 6-2.

But DiSarcina, who in 593 previous major league games had made more than one error only once--against Texas on Sept. 19, 1991--committed two errors in the seventh, and the White Sox were right back in it.

Tartabull opened the inning with a grounder to DiSarcina’s right, but the ball squirted under his glove. After Ron Karkovice struck out and Durham popped out, Guillen hit a liner to short that nicked DiSarcina’s glove for another error.

Phillips, the Angel lead-off batter in 1995 who was not re-signed over the winter, then tormented his former teammates with a three-run homer to right-center field, bringing an end to Boskie’s evening.

It was a bittersweet evening for DiSarcina, whose offensive exploits helped stake the Angels to what appeared to be a comfortable lead off Chicago starter Alex Fernandez.

Fernandez had dominated the Angels this season, going 2-0 with a 2.81 ERA and 16 strikeouts in two previous starts, but the right-hander gave up more earned runs (six) in the first four innings Monday night than he had in his last 21 innings (five) against the Angels.

DiSarcina singled with one out in the third, and Erstad belted a high fastball into the right-center field bleachers for his first big league home run and a 2-1 Angel lead.

DiSarcina, who had one RBI in his previous 10 games, and Erstad then keyed the Angels’ four-run fourth.