Angels Make Most of Shoe Being on Other Foot

The franchise with a plan, the one with the front-office stability, consistent starting pitching, commitment to its farm system, significant contributions from players fresh out of the minor leagues and the team in first place, beat the franchise in disarray Monday night.

Final score: Angels 6, Dodgers 5.

Confused? So was an Edison Field crowd of 43,491 that watched Angel designated hitter Tim Salmon walk with the bases loaded in the the ninth to force in the winning run in the first game of the Second Freeway Series That Matters, spoiling Glenn Hoffman’s debut as Dodger manager.

Salmon worked the count to 3-1 off reliever Jim Bruske, and with a sellout crowd waving white towels, Bruske delivered a fastball just off the outside corner, giving the Angels their first interleague victory over the Dodgers in five tries and accentuating a strange transformation involving the Los Angeles area’s two baseball teams.

For years, Dodger fans could look down their noses at Angel fans and chuckle about a franchise that would splurge on free agents for a year or two in a last-ditch attempt to win for owner Gene Autry, and then scrap it all for a youth movement.

And change uniforms and logos and colors about as often as they changed managers, which was often--Terry Collins is the team’s 15th field boss in 38 years. And have the gall to put cheerleaders on the dugout roof.

Dodger fans could point to Dodger Blue, their five World Series titles in Los Angeles, their beautiful park in Chavez Ravine, their five consecutive National League rookie-of-the-year winners, their managers who stayed in office longer than FDR, and their 3-million-a-year attendance.

But the baseball landscape has changed dramatically in the past two months: The Angels have essentially become the Dodgers, and the Dodgers have become the Angels, completing a bizarre personality transplant.

While the Dodgers have been busy firing managers and general managers, trading away their best player in a blockbuster deal and grabbing headlines with trade rumors, the Angels have quietly gone about their business, winning games and hardly influencing people.

“It’s like the Clippers and the Lakers,” Angel pitcher Chuck Finley said. “No matter what the Clippers do, the Lakers will always be in front, and that’s how it’s been with us and the Dodgers. We’ve been trying to create our own identity for 25 years. It’s time for us to do some good things.”

The time is ripe for the Angels, who could ease the Dodgers’ stronghold on the Southern California market by continuing their surprising run in the American League West--their lead over Texas increased to 3 1/2 games Monday night.

It would also help if the Angels, who went 0-4 in interleague play against the Dodgers last season, would win a game or two from their Southland rivals, and they finally seized that opportunity Monday night, but not without some pain.

Closer Troy Percival, who had given up no runs and two hits in his previous 14 innings, was one out away from his 24th save when pinch-hitter Matt Luke, who attended Placentia’s El Dorado High, slammed a fastball into the right-center field seats to make it 5-5 in the top of the ninth.

But Percival wound up the winner when Justin Baughman walked to open the bottom of the ninth and took second on Gary DiSarcina’s bunt. After an intentional walk to Darin Erstad, Craig Shipley struck out and Jim Edmonds was walked by reliever Mark Guthrie to load the bases. Bruske replaced Guthrie, and five pitches later, the Angels won for the 18th time in 21 games this month.

The Dodgers led, 4-0, after six innings on the strength of Charles Johnson’s three runs batted in, but the Angels stormed back with Cecil Fielder’s RBI single in the seventh, and a four-run eighth-inning rally that began with DiSarcina’s double off Dodger starter Ismael Valdes.

Erstad doubled to left off reliever Scott Radinsky for his 11th RBI in six games. Dave Hollins singled to make it 4-3, and Edmonds doubled to right-center to score Hollins with the tying run.

Hoffman went to right-hander Greg McMichael, who struck out Salmon, but Fielder singled to right, and Edmonds slid home just ahead of Gary Sheffield’s two-hop throw to make it 5-4.

“There were a lot of emotions swinging both ways, not only with what happened the whole day but in the last inning too,” Hoffman said. “But you have to give the Angels credit. They’re a hot club right now.”