Bang-Up Effort for Angels

As pratfalls go, the Angels’ stretch-run tumble in the American League West momentarily took a backseat to Manager Terry Collins, who fell while walking in the dark at the beach not far from his Seal Beach home 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 Twin reliever Rick Aguilera in the bottom of 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 drive into the seats in right.

Still, the Angels aren’t in much better shape than right side of their manager’s swollen and bruised face. It was only their fourth victory in the last 13 games and left them trailing the Mariners by 5 1/2 games with only 12 to play.

Howell brought the Angels back from the depths for the second day in a row. His three-run, opposite-field homer in the sixth inning lifted them to a 4-4 tie.