Bang-Up Effort by Angels

As pratfalls go, the Angels’ stretch-run tumble in the American League West momentarily took a back seat to Manager Terry Collins, who fell while walking in the dark at the beach not far from his home in Seal Beach Sunday night.

Collins, who arrived at the ballpark Monday looking like the loser of a 15-round title fight, received five stitches to close a gash above his right eye. Then the Angels--who haven’t seemed very interested in fighting for a title lately--were almost knocked out by the Minnesota Twins before twice rallying to tie and finally pulling out an 8-5 victory in front of 13,696 at Anaheim Stadium.

Buoyed by home runs from Jack Howell (a three-run shot in the sixth) and Dave Hollins (a bases-empty homer in the eighth), the Angels kept picking themselves up off the mat. Then Garret Anderson slammed a game-winning three-run homer off reliever Rick Aguilera in the ninth.

Gary DiSarcina led off the inning with a single to left and was replaced by pinch runner Darin Erstad. Erstad took second on Rickey Henderson’s groundout and third on a wild pitch. After Tony Phillips was walked intentionally, Anderson fouled off seven two-strike pitches before finally sending a towering drive into the seats in right.

“That’s about as quality an at-bat as a guy can have,” Collins said. “I don’t think Rick had anything left to throw at him. Garret just stood up there and fought it and fought it and fought it.”

Anderson: “I kept waiting for him to put something over the plate. He was making good pitches, just close enough to the corner, and I was lucky to foul them off. Then he finally left a forkball up.”

Still, the Angels aren’t in much better shape than right side of their manager’s swollen and bruised face and their chances of catching Seattle seem about as good as Collins winning a beauty contest in the next few days. It was only their fourth victory in the last 13 games and left them trailing the Mariners--who beat Toronto, 7-3, Monday night--by 5 1/2 games with 12 to play. Seattle’s magic number is seven.

“The guys know what they’re up against and it’s not going to be easy,” Collins said. “But I can tell you this, there’s no one on our bench talking about Seattle.”

Howell, getting a start at third base with Hollins playing first in place of injured Erstad, brought the Angels back from the depths for the second day in a row. Sunday, his two-run homer in the seventh helped the Angels rally for a 3-2 victory over Kansas City. Monday, his three-run, opposite-field homer in the sixth inning lifted them to a 4-4 tie.

The Twins quickly regained the lead, however, on a single by Pat Meares that chased starter Dennis Springer, a groundout and Ron Coomer’s run-scoring single off reliever Pep Harris.

The Angels rebounded again, however, when Hollins lined a shot over the wall in left to tie the score again in the eighth. It was his 14th homer of the year and his 13th at Anaheim Stadium.

In the early going, Minnesota, 20 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central, seemed to have more spunk than the Angels, who committed two errors, two wild pitches and a passed ball.

Springer’s 40-mile-an-hour knuckleballs were wandering all over and he walked two batters in the first inning, both of whom scored, thanks to the wild throw Springer delivered to second on a one-out double-play ball.

The Angels scored in the fourth with help from two errors on the same play by first baseman Scott Stahoviak. But the Twins increased their lead to 4-1 in the sixth on continued less-than-spectacular fielding by the Angels.

Brent Brede led off the inning with a double to right and Molitor followed with a sinking line drive to right. Salmon slid and missed the ball, which skipped past him toward the right-field corner. By the time Salmon had leisurely retrieved the ball, Molitor was on third with a triple. Stahoviak’s fly to the warning track in left allowed Molitor to jog home.