Percival Unfazed by Loss

When Angel Manager Terry Collins went to the mound to pull struggling closer Troy Percival in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s night’s opener, he didn’t need a hook as much as he did a torero’s cape.

“He was ranting and raving, charging like a bull out there,” Collins said of Percival, who failed to hold a three-run lead with two outs and no one on in the ninth. “But that’s what they tell me he’s like.”

True, Percival is about as intense a competitor as you’ll find when he’s in a save situation. But the way he was huffing and puffing and stalking around the mound Wednesday night, he looked as if he was trying to crank up the volume to 11 on an amplifier that reached only 10.

And the harder Percival threw, the harder it was to find the strike zone. Most of his pitches were wild high as he walked two batters with the bases loaded, then hit Rudy Pemberton to force in the tying run in Boston’s 6-5 victory.

In all, Percival walked four and struck out two, a completely out-of-character performance for the right-hander who struck out 194 and walked 57 in his first two seasons.

“Instead of saying, ‘Slow down,’ I tried to throw the ball by people,” Percival said. “There was no calmness. It was purely mental. I let my mind get away from me. It’s something I’ll learn from, but it’s a shame it had to happen with a three-run lead.”

Percival, who missed two weeks of spring training because of severe back spasms and is still trying to regain full command of his pitches, is not concerned that his blown save will linger.

In fact, he all but begged Collins to use him Thursday night, but Collins did not want to overuse Percival this early.

“If I can bounce back from the things I came back from last year, this is not going to faze me,” Percival said.

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There was some speculation in the Red Sox clubhouse that a Percival fastball that whizzed by the head of shortstop Nomar Garciaparra on Wednesday night may have been thrown with a purpose--you know, intimidate the rookie.

But Percival, who eventually struck out Garciaparra, swears he was trying to go down and away, and the pitch got away from him.

“If they watch the video, they’d know that I was all over the place,” Percival said. “I didn’t even know who was in the batter’s box.”

Garciaparra didn’t take the pitch personally. “After that, he seemed to walk everyone,” Garciaparra said, “so I don’t think [he was throwing at me]. It’s part of the game.”

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According to Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time the Red Sox came from three runs down in the ninth inning to win on opening day was 1902, when they beat Baltimore, 7-6.

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TODAY’S PITCHERS

ANGELS’ ALLEN WATSON (8-12, 4.61 last season) vs. INDIANS’ BARTOLO COLON (major league debut)

Anaheim Stadium, 7 p.m.

Radio--KTZN (710).

* UPDATE: Cleveland, in town for a three-game series, has a revamped lineup that includes five new regulars--third baseman Matt Williams, center fielder Marquis Grissom, left fielder David Justice, second baseman Tony Fernandez and DH Kevin Mitchell--and change, at least for the Indians, appears good. Even with Chicago adding slugger Albert Belle, Cleveland is the consensus favorite to win the American League Central division. Another new face is 21-year-old pitcher Bartolo Colon, a right-hander from the Dominican Republic with a 95 m.p.h. fastball who will make his big league debut tonight against the Angels. Colon went 13-3 with a 1.96 ERA at Class-A Kinston in 1995 and 2-2 with a 1.74 ERA at double-A Canton-Akron in ’96. Angel left-hander Allen Watson, acquired from San Francisco in the J.T. Snow trade, will make his American League debut, hoping to carry the momentum from his six-inning shutout of the Dodgers in Sunday’s Freeway Series game.