Percival Nearly Hits the Wall, Then Holds On

This wasn’t a save, it was a resuscitation.

Angel closer Troy Percival needed the jaws of life to extract himself from the mangled wreck of a ninth inning he created Friday night, but he mustered just enough to throw one more strike--on his 32nd pitch--past Keith Mitchell with the tying and winning runs on base to finish the Angels’ 7-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox before 32,470 in Fenway Park.

Thanks to the Chicago White Sox’s comeback win over Texas in the second game of a doubleheader Friday night, the Angels, who had lost in New York Wednesday and Thursday nights when the Yankees scored in their last at-bat, improved their lead over the Rangers to three games in the American League West.

“I’ve had enough drama for one year,” Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina said. “Uncle. I give up, man.”

A rat-a-tat-tat attack consisting of 13 singles, five that never left the infield, and six walks, and an effective if not masterful performance by starter Ken Hill in his return from the disabled list staked the Angels to a 7-3 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.

Pep Harris retired the only batter he faced to end the eighth, and Angel Manager Terry Collins had Percival warm up, in case a few runners reached base and the heart of the Red Sox order came up in the ninth.

“Then I figured if he was getting ready to go in, we might as well use him,” Collins said. “If a few guys got on, we were going to go to him anyway, so why take any chances? Why mess around?”

But Percival, who ranks second in the league with 37 saves but often has trouble pitching in non-save situations, made a mess of things.

Mike Benjamin doubled to left-center to open the inning. After Darren Lewis struck out, John Valentin walked. Mo Vaughn lofted a high fly ball to left that caromed off the Green Monster for a two-run double. One out later, Troy O’Leary doubled Vaughn home to make it 7-6.

Collins chose to intentionally walk Mike Stanley, who represented the winning run. “I wasn’t going to let Stanley beat us,” he said.

Percival fell behind Mitchell, a reserve outfielder, 2-0, then came back with three strikes, the last of which he described as a “tired fastball,” and the Angels held on to improve to 4-2 on this demanding, 10-game trip through New York, Boston and Cleveland.

Catcher Phil Nevin flipped the game ball to Percival, but the right-hander wanted nothing to do with it--he tossed it into the crowd. Pitching Coach Marcel Lachemann came out to talk to his closer, but Percival seemed inconsolable, yelling at himself as Lachemann tried to calm him down.

“I don’t know what I was doing out there,” Percival said. “I was throwing the ball rather than pitching, trying to throw the ball by guys instead of throwing strikes. Some days you have good stuff, some days you don’t.”

Percival didn’t like the idea of pitching with a four-run lead.

“Not in September,” he said. “You’ve got to save every bullet you have. That’s why I was so mad at myself, I was wasting too many pitches.”

As for his shouting match with Lachemann, Percival said, “When you’re mad, you don’t want to talk to people.”

Added Collins: “It’s just a matter of frustration. Troy was mad at himself. He hasn’t pitched well against Boston or Cleveland. It’s a fine line [between expressing frustration and insulting a coach], and Lach didn’t want him to go over it. That’s all he was trying to tell him.”

Until the bottom of the ninth, it had been one of those warm and fuzzy nights for the Angels, who scored five runs in the fifth to erase a 3-0 deficit--their last six victories have been come-from-behind efforts--and were inspired by Hill’s six-inning, three-run, eight-hit effort in his first start since undergoing elbow surgery June 15.

“Any time a guy has been out that long, you’re kind of holding your breath,” Lachemann said.

“But he located his pitches well, made a lot of good pitches and threw everything he had, even a curve that he wasn’t throwing before.

“The two outings Jack McDowell [both victories] has given us and this right here, that’s a pretty positive thing.”