Warning Sign May Be Out for Angels

For a few tantalizing moments Sunday afternoon, it appeared the Angels might muster another magical comeback in this season of surprise finishes.

They trailed by a run with a runner on first in the bottom of the ninth when Garret Anderson, Dave Hollins and Jim Edmonds each sent fly balls to the outer reaches of Anaheim Stadium against Red Sox reliever Tom Gordon.

But the Big A was simply too big for the Angels, and the drives amounted to what Boston Manager Jimy Williams called “a thousand feet of outs,” as the Red Sox held on for a 3-2 victory before a crowd of 20,733.

“Gosh, I thought all three of those were going out,” said Tim Salmon, who walked against Boston starter Tim Wakefield to open the ninth. “Any time the ball goes in the air here during the day it has a chance to go out.”

Gordon, making the transition from starter to closer, relieved Wakefield after Salmon’s walk, and Anderson greeted him with a drive to the warning track in right-center field. But Troy O’Leary made a nice running catch in front of the 370-foot marker for the first out.

Hollins then ripped a drive to straight-away right and O’Leary, battling a tough sun, went down to his knees on the warning track to make the catch in front of the 362-foot sign.

Edmonds then smashed a liner over the head of center fielder Jesus Tavarez, but Tavarez went back to the warning track and made the grab in the shadow of the 404-foot sign.

Adding even more anguish, the Angels returned to their clubhouse and watched Seattle put the finishing touches on a victory over New York, which pushed the Mariner lead over the Angels to 2 1/2 games.

“The way I’ve seen balls fly out of here in the daytime, I couldn’t believe one of those didn’t go out,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “We put three good passes on the ball.”

That’s about as many good swings as they had all afternoon against Wakefield, the Red Sox knuckleballer who gave up two runs on four hits in eight innings.

After watching Dennis Springer baffle opponents with his knuckler in recent weeks, the Angels discovered how the other half lives.

Hollins pulled a home run into the shallow field seats in left in the second inning, and Tony Phillips followed Rickey Henderson’s single and stolen base with a bloop RBI single to right-center in the third, accounting for the Angel runs.

The Red Sox scored in the third when Nomar Garciaparra singled, extending his hitting streak to 26 games, stole second, took third on a fielder’s choice and came home on Wilfredo Cordero’s infield single.

Garciaparra opened the fifth with a single, and John Valentin hit a Ken Hill split-fingered fastball over the wall in left-center for a homer that proved decisive.

Though Hill (6-11) suffered the loss, his six-inning, seven-hit, three-run, one-walk, four-strikeout performance was his best since he was acquired from Texas on July 29, a marked improvement over his last two starts, in which he gave up seven runs to both Baltimore and New York.

“Everything was working well and I hit my spots,” Hill said. “I just made one bad pitch and it cost me the ballgame. It may have been my best outing, but it’s not a win. Every start is critical with the situation this team is in.”

Hill said he and pitching coach Marcel Lachemann detected a flaw in Hill’s motion on videotapes of his recent starts, and Hill believes he corrected the problem by driving his front shoulder directly toward the catcher.

“Before, my shoulder was flying open and my pitches were going all over the place,” Hill said. “Now, I’m thrusting my shoulder right at the catcher’s glove and hitting my spots better. No question, I’m turning the corner . . . but a loss is a loss.”