Angels Find It’s Time to Win

It was 4 hours and 12 minutes of pure intensity and adrenaline, of dramatic comebacks and harrowing moments, and when it was finally over, when Angel closer Troy Percival had snagged Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter’s hard grounder up the middle with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, the Angels had secured one of their most exciting victories this season.

It’s not easy quieting 30,422 raucous New Yorkers, but Percival did it not once but twice Tuesday night, slamming the door on an eighth-inning jam he inherited and a ninth-inning mess he created, leading the Angels to a 7-6, come-from-behind win over the mighty Yankees in Yankee Stadium.

The Angels erased a 4-1, third-inning deficit with two runs in the sixth and four in the seventh, then held on for dear life as the Yankees, who scored single runs in the seventh and eighth, nearly pulled off another of their miraculous comebacks.

Combined with Texas’ loss to Detroit, the Angels’ second consecutive win in the Bronx--and fifth over the Yankees in eight games this season--gave them a 3 1/2 game lead over the Rangers in the American League West.

“We aren’t going to quit--that’s the makeup of this team,” said Percival, who needed 39 pitches in 1 2/3 innings to record his 36th save, tying his career high. “Everyone says they can’t believe were hanging in there with Texas. We’re not hanging on. We’re running away.”

The Yankees nearly walked away with a win Tuesday night. After striking out Bernie Williams, the league’s top hitter, and getting Tino Martinez, who has 22 homers and 103 RBIs, to ground out with runners on first and second to end the eighth, Percival lost his bearings in the ninth.

With a 7-6 lead, Percival sandwiched three walks around Jorge Posada’s strikeout and Scott Brosius’ flyout, loading the bases with two out. Up stepped Jeter, a .330 hitter who already had four singles.

“Sometimes when you get in the mind set that you have to throw strikes, you can’t,” Percival said. “So I just stopped thinking.”

And began throwing strikes. Percival jumped ahead of Jeter 0-and-2, and Jeter hit his third pitch on one hop to Percival’s left. Percival lunged to his left to snag the ball and toss it to first to end the game.

“I don’t know what anyone else is thinking,” Percival said, “but I’m thinking Gold Glove.”

The prevailing thought among the Angels? Whew!

“That was an intense game, man,” designated hitter Tim Salmon said. “The Yankees are like Murderers’ Row--every guy in that lineup can win the game--I was just hoping Percy wouldn’t run out of steam. But he’s the guy you want out there in those situations. He brings such desire and heart every time he goes out there.”

Percival seems to have extra desire against the Yankees. He has not given up an earned run to the team in his career, a span of 17 innings.

The Angels also got plenty of clutch hitting and some solid relief from Allen Watson, who gave up one run and four hits and struck out five in three innings after starter Omar Olivares was knocked out in the fourth.

But the foundation for the Angel comeback was laid by outstanding situational hitting and baserunning.

The Angels scored their first run in the third when Gary DiSarcina doubled, took third on Orlando Palmeiro’s sacrifice bunt and came home on Randy Velarde’s groundout. In their sixth-inning rally, which included RBI singles by Troy Glaus and Matt Walbeck to pull the Angels to within 4-3, Garret Anderson, Jim Edmonds and Glaus each went from first to third on base hits.

After Velarde walked to open the seventh and took second on Yankee reliever Mike Stanton’s wild pickoff attempt, Darin Erstad ripped an RBI double past a diving Martinez at first to tie the score, 4-4.

Erstad then took third on Salmon’s fly ball to medium right, diving in just ahead of Paul O’Neill’s strong throw, and Anderson, with the infield in, drove a grounder through the left side for a 5-4 lead.

Anderson took third on Edmonds’ single to right, and Edmonds stole second. Yankee reliever Mike Buddie’s first pitch went right at Glaus’ head, but Glaus dusted off and drilled a two-run double for a 7-4 lead.

RBI singles by Chili Davis in the seventh and O’Neill in the eighth pulled the Yankees to within a run, but they wound up losing their third straight game, matching their longest losing streak of the season.

“This team is not going to let down,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “We were down, 4-1, and [Hideki] Irabu was throwing good. It would have been real easy to say, ‘That’s enough, tonight is not our night,’ but we fought back. We hit a lot of singles, went from first to third and created runs. That’s the way we have to play.”