For Now, Angels Have It Together

All the elements that have been missing for so much of this nondescript Angel season--great relief pitching, clutch hitting, solid situational hitting, a never-say-die attitude--converged Sunday to create one of the team’s most satisfying victories of 1998.

The Angels erased a five-run deficit, their largest comeback of the year, and beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-5, before 11,285 in the Metrodome, a victory made possible by Jason Dickson’s 4 1/3 shutout innings and home runs by Darin Erstad, Jim Edmonds and Matt Walbeck.

Rookie second baseman Justin Baughman, who ended an 0-for-15 slump with a second-inning single, tripled off the wall in left to open the ninth and scored the winning run on Gary DiSarcina’s sacrifice fly to medium right field.

Troy Percival pitched a hitless ninth for his 14th save, closing a win that took some of the sting out of the loss of pitcher Jack McDowell, who couldn’t get out of the fourth inning Sunday and will go on the disabled list--for the second time this season--today because of an elbow injury.

It was the Angels’ 11th come-from-behind win of the season after 44 comeback wins in 1997, and their fourth victory in their last at-bat. They won 22 games in their last at-bat last season.

“This was a great boost for the club after last night [an 8-1 loss to the Twins], and hopefully it will carry over,” said Walbeck, whose two-run homer in the sixth tied the score, 5-5.

“We’ve been looking for something to spark us a bit, and maybe this will be it. It’s a great emotional lift knowing we can come back if we’re down.”

McDowell, pitching with so much pain he feared his elbow “was going to snap,” put the Angels in a hole Sunday, giving up five runs and 10 hits in 3 2/3 innings.

But Dickson, who took his demotion to the bullpen in early May as a challenge instead of a reason to pout, blanked the Twins on two hits through the eighth, striking out three and pitching with the kind of aggression and confidence he did not display as a starter in April.

The right-hander, who will replace McDowell in the rotation this week, came inside with his fastball and located his curve on both sides of the plate. He kept hitters off balance with his changeup.

“It finally sank in that I’m in the big leagues for a reason,” said Dickson, who went 13-9 and made the All-Star team as a rookie in 1997. “I thought back to the success I had last year and realized I had to challenge guys like I did then.”

Manager Terry Collins seemed to challenge the Angels on Wednesday night, after a lackluster loss to the Royals extended their losing streak to four. “There was a sense last year that we could win a game late,” Collins said. “That isn’t there right now.”

It reappeared in the fifth inning Sunday when Erstad ripped a two-out Mike Morgan pitch over the right-field wall for his team-leading 12th homer. Dave Hollins singled, and Edmonds followed with his 11th homer, an opposite-field drive to left that pulled the Angels to within 5-3.

“There’s no question everything today was a little different,” Collins said. “After Jim’s homer, I saw a complete change in the club. Everyone started yelling and hollering. It got pretty loud on the bench.”

Walbeck pumped up the volume in the sixth when he followed Garret Anderson’s bloop single with a two-run homer to right off reliever Mike Trombley to pull the Angels even.

The Angels squandered a scoring chance in the eighth, which began with pinch-hitter Craig Shipley’s double and Anderson’s sacrifice bunt. Walbeck popped to first and Damon Mashore struck out to end the inning.

But after Baughman tripled to start the ninth, DiSarcina poked a two-strike pitch from Greg Swindell to right, not real deep but far enough to score the speedy Baughman, who upended catcher Javier Valentin with his slide.

“It’s a game of momentum,” DiSarcina said, “and those home runs really turned things around.”

But can the Angels, a streaky team that can win three in a row and lose three in a row in the same week, carry that momentum into another day?

“That’s a good question,” DiSarcina said.