Wild Angel Win Includes an Inside-the-Glove Homer

There were 14 runs, four home runs, 23 hits, 10 pitchers, one controversial call, one heated argument involving several players, a manager and an umpire, two ejections, one spectacular catch. . . .

“Now that,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said, “was an American League baseball game.”

This was not necessarily a ringing endorsement of the American League style of play, but who was Collins to complain?

His Angels pounded out 14 of those hits, including three home runs, and his center fielder, Jim Edmonds, made that great catch, and his team outlasted the Detroit Tigers, 8-6, Saturday in front of 18,320 in Tiger Stadium to win for only the fourth time in 12 games.

Designated hitter Tim Salmon, who had two hits in 21 at-bats since coming off the disabled list May 9, had three hits, including a two-run homer in the first inning and an RBI single in the fifth, to pace the Angels.

Second baseman Norberto Martin hit a two-run homer in the sixth and an RBI groundout in the seventh, shortstop Gary DiSarcina had two doubles and a single, and Edmonds added a bizarre, bases-empty, eighth-inning home run, which actually landed in the glove of Tiger right fielder Bobby Higginson.

With the Angels holding a 7-5 lead, Edmonds, whose would-be homer on April 25 turned into a double when his long drive hit a catwalk above right field in Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field, lofted a fly ball to deep right to open the eighth. Higginson, battling the sun and the wind, stumbled on the warning track before leaping at the wall to make the catch.

Edmonds stopped at second base and began heading for the Angel dugout when second-base umpire Larry Barnett twirled his right hand to signal a home run, later claiming the ball bounced off an advertising board that hangs over the right-field wall but underneath the upper deck.

Higginson, center fielder Brian Hunter and left fielder Luis Gonzalez charged toward Barnett, and Higginson was ejected immediately after hurling his glove and cap in disgust.

Detroit Manager Buddy Bell pleaded Higginson’s case and was soon ejected by third-base umpire Greg Kosc after a heated exchange near the third-base dugout.

“I heard the ball hit the Bud Light sign,” said Barnett, the crew chief for the Angels’ controversial 5-4, 15-inning win over the Tigers last Sept. 7, when the teams combined for 33 strikeouts, 16 of them looking. “I [signaled home run] as soon as I heard the metal sound.”

Higginson said the ball didn’t come close to the sign.

“It was close to the overhang, but it didn’t hit the sign,” he said. “If it did, I never would have been able to catch it. When you see that many players running at an umpire, you know something is wrong.”

No replays were available because the game was not televised, but the Tigers believe their in-house video backs their argument. “I think he missed the call,” Tiger General Manager Randy Smith said. “I think it’s quite obvious.”

Detroit scored in the bottom of the eighth on Tony Clark’s double off reliever Pep Harris, Gonzalez’s single and Damion Easley’s fielder’s choice to trim the lead to 8-6.

But Angel closer Troy Percival recorded two outs to end the eighth and struck out three of four batters in the ninth for his 11th save, and his first since last Sunday.

Edmonds also had a save in the sixth, diving into the right-center field gap to rob Frank Catalanotto of an extra-base hit and an RBI. Edmonds, who sprained his right wrist diving for a ball on April 18, tried to support his glove hand with his throwing hand as he crashed to the ground, and when he hit the turf, the ball popped out of his glove and straight into the air.

But Edmonds, a Gold Glove winner in 1997, rolled to his back and snagged the ball before it hit the ground, the inning ending with his first genuine highlight-reel catch of the season.

“I’ve been a little shy out there this year,” Edmonds said. “There’s only one ball that I felt I should have caught [that I didn’t dive for], against Cleveland [April 11], and I was just beat up that day. Everything else has been just out of my reach, balls I didn’t want to dive for and risk giving up a double.”