Defense Saves Day for Angels

The Angels blew three leads, committed three errors and walked nine against the Boston Red Sox Tuesday, but when your defense is also so good you make a spectacular play by accident, it’s possible to overcome such shortcomings.

Throw in a daring dash to the plate by Jim Edmonds, a pinch of good relief pitching and a heaping spoonful of late-inning heroics, and it added up to a 5-4 Angel victory in front of 19,347 at Fenway Park.

Jim Leyritz, who drove in two of the Angels’ earlier runs, doubled with two outs in the top of the ninth, and Garret Anderson hit an RBI single off reliever Butch Henry to give the Angels their seventh victory in their last at-bat, three in the last five games.

Mike James then pitched a scoreless ninth, surviving a bizarre, two-out, triple-switch by Manager Terry Collins, to record the Angels’ second save of the season, and all three Angel outfielders--Tim Salmon, Orlando Palmeiro and Anderson--had assists by the fourth inning.

The Angels improved to 12-11, and eight of their victories--and eight losses--have come by one or two runs.

“It seems like all our games are this way,” Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina said. “It’s like a callous building up on your hand . . . you just kind of get used to it.”

There was nothing ordinary about the Angel defense, though. Palmeiro made a perfect throw to the plate to cut down Rudy Pemberton, who was trying to score on Shane Mack’s third-inning single, and Salmon fired a bullet to third to nail Tim Naehring, who was trying to advance from first on Bill Haselman’s fourth-inning single to right.

Salmon’s throw was so perfect that third baseman Dave Hollins didn’t have to move his glove to make the tag. But now it can be told: Salmon didn’t mean to throw it to Hollins.

“The most hilarious part of that play is that I wasn’t even thinking of getting the guy at third,” Salmon said. “I was just trying to get the ball to Gary [DiSarcina, cut-off man on the play], so I could keep the guy at first and the double play in order.

“I threw it high and thought, ‘Oh my God.’ But thank God Gary was on-line [with Hollins]. I was watching [Haselman], making sure he didn’t go to second, I looked at third and we got him . . . it was amazing.”

So was Edmonds’ play on Mo Vaughn’s fifth-inning chopper with two outs and runners on first and second. Edmonds, in his fourth game at first base since moving from the outfield, fielded the grounder and, with his momentum carrying him toward second, made a 20-foot, back-handed flip to pitcher Mark Langston, who tagged first.

“Did you like that?” Edmonds said. “That better make Plays of the Week. Everything I do out there is straight reaction. I had to get the ball to the pitcher somehow and just did it.”

Edmonds’ athletic ability--and instinct--gave the Angels a run in the fifth. Trailing, 2-1, Edmonds doubled with two outs and scored with a remarkable hook slide past Haselman, the Red Sox catcher who, following Hollins’ single to left, fielded Wil Cordero’s throw to the plate well before Edmonds arrived.

Price of the play?

“The worst raspberry I’ve ever had,” Edmonds said. “I’m not going to be able to slide for a week.”

Leyritz’s RBI single after Edmonds’ slide gave the Angels a 3-2 lead, but Boston tied it in the bottom of the fifth on Cordero’s RBI infield single, which Hollins knocked down with a dive but couldn’t make a play on.

The teams exchanged seventh-inning runs, the Angels scoring on Leyritz’s RBI groundout and the Red Sox on Rich DeLucia’s bases-loaded walk to Naehring. The Angels went ahead in the top of the ninth, but Boston threatened with pinch-runner Darren Bragg on first and two out in the ninth.

Collins, fearing Bragg might steal second, then replaced Leyritz with catcher Jorge Fabregas, moved Leyritz to first and Edmonds to center field, before James struck out Troy O’Leary to end the game.

“We went into the nickel defense,” James said. “I didn’t know what the heck that was all about, and it kind of caught me off-guard, but I just tried to stay focused.”