Thanks to Anderson, Angels Aren’t Caught

A lone Baltimore Oriole fan refused to give up the ghost. He reached out and took one last swipe at the ball--which was already tucked neatly away in Garret Anderson’s glove.

Anderson sprinted away from the left-field fence, breaking his customary stoic expression with a big grin. Seconds earlier, he had leaped and reached over the fence to take a game-tying home run away from Harold Baines, preserving a 6-5 Angel victory--their sixth in a row--on Tuesday.

“I didn’t feel any fans,” Anderson said. “I just wanted to get up, catch it, and get out of there.”

Those wishes were granted, ending a wild ninth inning that began with closer Troy Percival being called for delay of game and ended with Anderson literally taking the game away from the Camden Yards’ crowd of 41,877.

“I didn’t see he had it until he started running back in with it,” said Percival, who gave up a run in the ninth, but got his seventh save and third in three days.

“It’s great when you go out there and don’t have your best stuff and guys pick you up. It shouldn’t got to that point.”

There was no indication it would.

Jason Dickson gave the Angels his best performance this season. He went 6 2/3 innings and looked much as he did a year ago, when he had a 10-4 record by the end of July.

Cecil Fielder continued his hot hitting with a three-run homer in the fifth for a 6-0 lead. It gave him 10 runs batted in the last seven games.

The bullpen, solid in recent weeks, was rested and ready.

Then . . .

“An unbelievable finish,” Manager Terry Collins said. “A great catch by Garret.”

With a lot in between.

Dickson, starting his first game since April 18, was the seventh Angel starter in eight games to pitch into the seventh.

“That keeps you from over-exposing your bullpen,” Collins said. “Those guys are down their for matchups.”

The first matchup worked, as Rich DeLucia struck out Eric Davis with a runner on to end the seventh. DeLucia then gave up a three-run homer to Baines in the eighth, making it 6-4.

“I thought DeLucia would quietly throw some sinkers and get some ground balls,” Collins said. “He hung split finger and all of sudden it’s a ballgame again.”

By the time the eighth ended, Collins had used two other pitchers and Anderson, who started in right field, had made a running catch short of the warning track to take an extra base hit away from Chris Hoiles.

Before the ninth inning started, Percival was working with a 1-0 count to Eric Davis after being called for delay of game. Davis then ripped a 2-1 pitch for a triple.

Collins and Angel Pitching Coach Marcel Lachemann went out separately to check on Percival, who experienced tenderness in his elbow after a game last Wednesday.

“The one ball he threw, he got underneath it and felt the same twinge he felt the other day,” Collins said.

Percival said he had no problems with his elbow.

“I was third day weary,” he said.

Still, he got Rafael Palmeiro to ground out, scoring Davis, then Cal Ripken, who popped up. That brought up Baines and sent Anderson scurrying.

“If it’s not exciting, it’s not fun,” said Dickson, who picked up his first victory since Aug. 23, a span of 10 starts.

The Orioles had runners on in every inning but the second. Only Hoiles scored, on a ground out in the fifth.

“Jason made pitches,” Collins said. “He didn’t let the trouble get to him. He get upset when somebody got base hit.”

It helped that the Angels took an early lead, with a run in the first and two in the second. Fielder then delivered the big blow, lining a 0-2 pitch into the left field seats in the fifth for a six-run lead.

That seemed like a lot, but it was just enough.

“It was a team effort the whole way through,’ Percival said. “It took everybody we had to win that game.”

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* ANGEL REPORT: C4