James Gives Angels Some Sweet Relief

On the surface, there wasn’t much about the Angels’ 3-2 loss to Boston beyond the standard fare--good pitching by both sides, one swing of the bat decided the game--to catch the casual eye.

But despite all that, the Angels saw something to warm their collective hearts--a sharp relief performance by right-hander Mike James.

Sunday was the best James has looked since coming off the disabled list July 27 after resting a sore elbow. He stranded a runner at third in the sixth, and retired all seven batters he faced in 2 1/3 innings. More important, his fastball had movement.

“Mike lives and dies with the movement of his pitches, especially to right-handed batters,” Manager Terry Collins said. “Today not only was his velocity was good, but he made pitches out there.

“He makes a great difference in our bullpen. When our pen was really pitching well we had established guys in certain roles. And his was setting up [Troy Percival].”

Watching from the bullpen, Percival was also excited about James’ effort.

“Middle relief may be tougher than closing because you throw more innings,” Percival said. “What we saw today was the guy we’ll need in September. You could see the action on his ball; even when he threw on the outside it was still moving back over corner.”

James, whose last appearance was against the Yankees on Wednesday, said he needed an outing like Sunday to restore some confidence. In his previous 12 appearances, dating back to June 24, James had given up 10 earned runs.

“Today I was able to trust my pitches, just throw the ball instead of trying to make something happen,” said James, whose 46 appearances this season are third highest on the staff. “I haven’t had the feeling in awhile.

“I’ve always considered middle relief guys like myself, Pep [Harris] and Mike [Holtz] to be like an offensive line in football. By the nature of what we do, we’re invisible. But if we don’t hold things together the team can’t win.”

The Angels did not win on Sunday, but if James is back to the form he showed against Boston, they will expect to lose less often down the stretch.