Extra-Cautious Angels Prevail in Extra Innings

Relief came in two major forms for the Angels on Friday night, Rich DeLucia and Troy Percival combining to pitch five scoreless innings and the Angels breathing a lot easier after defeating the Seattle Mariners, 5-3, in 11 innings to end their six-game losing streak.

Jim Edmonds knocked in the winning run with an RBI single in the top of the 11th, enabling the Angels to maintain their half-game lead over the Texas Rangers in the American League West.

“We needed a little boost, no doubt,” Percival said. “We’ve been coming up short, not making the big pitch, getting the big hit. It was just a matter of time. I have full faith in this team, that we’re going to keep plugging away and keep playing good baseball.”

A Kingdome crowd of 28,689 saw Gary DiSarcina open the 11th with a single to left off reliever Bobby Ayala. Darin Erstad dropped a sacrifice bunt between the mound and third, but he was safe at first when he knocked the ball out of second baseman Joey Cora’s glove while crossing the bag.

DiSarcina took third on the error and, after Dave Hollins struck out, Edmonds lined an RBI single to center to give the Angels a 4-3 lead and snap a spell in which the Angels had gone one for 17 with runners in scoring position.

Erstad and Edmonds advanced on catcher Dan Wilson’s passed ball and, after an intentional walk to Tim Salmon, Cecil Fielder chopped a grounder behind the second-base bag.

Cora made a nice play to get Fielder at first, but Erstad scored to give the Angels a 5-3 lead and Fielder his 1,000th career RBI.

A gutsy move by Angel Manager Terry Collins, who had DeLucia intentionally walk Ken Griffey Jr. with two out and no one on in the bottom of the ninth, paid off.

Griffey had homered into the upper deck in the seventh, but Collins wasn’t about to let the Mariner center fielder beat him. DeLucia issued the free pass and then struck out Edgar Martinez to complete three innings of scoreless relief, preserving a 3-3 tie.

Percival then got Rico Rossy to pop out with runners at second and third to end the bottom of the 10th and added a scoreless 11th for the win, improving to 2-3.

“My coaching staff pretty much hit me in the middle of the eyes, telling me not to let [Griffey] beat you,” Collins said. “It doesn’t matter who’s pitching to Junior. If I bring in [left-hander Greg] Cadaret and tell him not to give him anything to hit, I’m walking him anyway and wasting a pitcher.”

The Angels turned a 2-0 deficit after five innings into a 3-2 lead with one good stroke of the bat and two strokes of fortune.

Garret Anderson ended the Angels’ 0-for-11 drought with runners in scoring position by reaching out for a Jamie Moyer breaking ball well off the plate and blooping a two-out RBI single to left to drive in Edmonds, who had doubled to lead off the sixth.

That trimmed Seattle’s lead to 2-1, and the Angels tied it when Erstad slammed a meaty Moyer changeup deep into the right-field seats with two out in the seventh for his team-leading 19th homer.

Hollins walked, and Edmonds followed with a drive to the gap in left center. Russ Davis, who committed a major league-leading 25 errors at third base before being moved to left field, raced over and appeared to be in good position to make the catch.

But Davis, the eighth Mariner left fielder this season and the 58th to play the position since 1989, had the ball nick off the top of his glove for an error, allowing Hollins to score for a 3-2 lead.

That didn’t last long. Griffey opened the bottom of the seventh by blasting an 0-and-2 Chuck Finley pitch into the upper deck in right field, tying the Mariner center fielder with St. Louis’ Mark McGwire for the major league lead in home runs with 37.

It was Griffey’s fourth homer into the third deck this season and the 20th of his career.

The Angels had a great chance to take the lead again in the eighth when Anderson opened with a double and was sacrificed to third by Matt Walbeck. But Moyer struck out Justin Baughman with the infield in, and shortstop Alex Rodriguez fielded DiSarcina’s grounder to the hole and made a long, accurate throw to first to end the inning.

That was pretty much the theme of the evening for the Angels, who put runners at first and second with no outs in both the first and second innings and had a leadoff double in the fifth but had nothing to show for it.

* BATTLE STATIONS

Randy Johnson and the Mariners still have a lot of fight left in them. C9