Hill and Percival Do Job

The last time Ken Hill pitched, he figured he was either tipping his pitches or the Toronto baserunners were stealing signs. Manager Terry Collins smiles and says, “I don’t think it would have mattered, because he certainly wasn’t locating the ball where he wanted it.”

In any case, the Blue Jays pretty much knew where the ball was headed after Hill pitched it: back out into the outfield. They ripped him for eight runs in 1 2/3 innings.

Wednesday night, Hill regained the form that has made him one of the Angels’ most consistent pitchers this season, and the Oakland Athletics had only a few runners in position to peek in at catcher Matt Walbeck’s fingers as the Angels beat Oakland, 5-4, in front of 17,160 at Edison Field.

And Troy Percival came on to get the last out by striking out Jason Giambi after the A’s had cut the lead to one run in the ninth.

Hill pretty much hit his spots for 8 2/3 innings, nicely spacing out eight hits. He walked seven but struck out eight to earn his seventh victory, which ties him for the league lead. Hill did most of the work--he threw 148 pitches and left with a 5-1 lead before reliever Mike Holtz put a few more gray hairs under Manager Terry Collins’ cap--with a considerable contribution from Darin Erstad.

Tuesday night, Darin Erstad hustled down the first-base line to beat out a seemingly routine grounder and then raced home to score the winning run as the Angels rallied for a victory in the 10th inning. Wednesday night, he used his bat speed instead of foot speed. His solo homer in the sixth inning tied the score and his two-run single in the seventh broke it open.

“That’s what Darin does, he maximizes every situation,” Collins said. “A lot of guys say, ‘Oh, a ground ball to second,’ and then three-quarter it down to first. But that’s not the way Darin Erstad plays.

“It’s like what your dad and Little League coach always taught you. Run as hard as you can until they call you out. And that’s what he does, every time.”

The Angels, who won without getting the ball out of the infield in the 10th-inning Tuesday, appeared to have reverted to their recent tried-and-true formula for defeat in the first five innings. They had lost eight of 10 games before Tuesday--scoring three or fewer runs in all but one of those defeats--when Collins announced he would be going with a set lineup for a while.

And the lineup he molded appeared to be set in cement for a while.

For the first five innings, the Angels made a guy named Mike Oquist look like Sandy Koufax, mustering just one single on Oquist’s first 68 pitches. Then Erstad hit delivery No. 69 into the right-field seats with one out in the sixth, Jim Edmonds ripped a single to center on No. 72 and Tim Salmon sent a 398-foot missile into the bullpen beyond the fence in left on No. 73.

The Angels chased Oquist and increased their lead to 5-1 in the seventh. Garret Anderson and Walbeck singled to left and rookie Justin Baughman beat out a sacrifice bunt to load the bases. Gary DiSarcina forced Anderson at the plate before Erstad drove in two more with a line-drive single to center.

The Angels were well-armed on this evening and it wasn’t just Hill. A couple of accurate throws by teammates helped keep the A’s off the bases and the scoreboard.

In the second inning, Giambi singled to center and Mike Blowers followed with a sinking line drive that right fielder Anderson apparently lost in the lights. The ball skipped to the wall where Edmonds retrieved it and threw to Baughman, who fired a strike to Walbeck to get Giambi.

Jason McDonald singled to center with one out in the third, but Walbeck threw him out trying to steal. Hill walked the next two batters before getting Matt Stairs to ground into a force play.

The A’s took a short-lived 1-0 lead in the sixth on a walk, a single, a sacrifice and a run-scoring single to center by Kurt Abbott, but Hill struck out A.J. Hinch and got Rickey Henderson to fly to right.

He left with two on and two out in the ninth, but left-hander Mike Holtz failed to shut the door on the A’s, giving up run-scoring singles to Ben Grieve and Stairs and allowing another run to score on wild pitch.

Collins summoned Percival, who had blown a three-run lead in the ninth inning Tuesday night, to pitch to Giambi with pinch runner Mark Bellhorn--the tying run--on first. Bellhorn stole second and took third on a passed ball before Percival blew a fastball by Giambi for a strikeout that earned him his 12th save . . . and a bit of retribution.