Angels Find Way to Save It

For the second time in as many nights, an Angel starter walked into the dugout tipping his cap to an appreciative crowd after an outstanding performance. And for the second time in as many nights, the Angels beat the Oakland A’s.

But these days the Angels are like Tina Turner. They never, ever do anything nice and easy.

Ken Hill was one out away from a complete game when he left with a four-run lead, but after another Angel reliever failed to slam the door--and a few more gray hairs sprouted under Manager Terry Collins’ cap--the Angels were relieved to settle for a 5-4 victory in front of 17,160 at Edison Field.

Hill, who threw a career-high 148 pitches and pretty much ended any chance of picking up his first complete game of the season when he told Collins “I’ll pitch to this guy, but I’m out of gas,” left with runners on first and second when he gave way to Mike Holtz.

Holtz gave up run-scoring singles to Ben Grieve and Matt Stairs sandwiched around a wild pitch that enabled another run to score. Collins was forced to summon Troy Percival--who had blown a three-run lead in the ninth inning Tuesday night--to pitch to Jason 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 past Giambi for a strikeout that earned him his 12th save . . . and a bit of retribution.

“I was really glad to get back out there,” Percival said. “It’s especially important when it’s the same team, to show them that you want the ball. [Tuesday night], I tried to nitpick and got behind. Tonight I was much more aggressive. I just figured I’d throw the ball down the middle of the plate as hard as I could and see what happened.”

The ninth-inning drama overshadowed a Herculean effort by Hill, who threw 13 more pitches than his previous high, two years ago with Texas. Asked how his arm felt, he said, “I’ll know in the morning.”

“I felt really good tonight and I really wanted to finish it off, but I just got tired,” he said.

The last time he pitched, he figured he was either tipping his pitches or the Toronto baserunners were stealing signs. 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.

He struggled a bit with his control again, but nicely spaced out eight hits and seven walks and struck out eight to earn his seventh victory, which ties him for the league lead.

Hill did a yeoman’s share of the work, but he got a considerable contribution from Darin Erstad. Tuesday night, Erstad hustled down the first-base line to beat out a seemingly routine grounder and then raced home to score the winning run in the 10th inning. Wednesday night, he was using bat speed instead of foot speed.

His home run in the sixth inning tied the score and his two-run single in the seventh broke it open.

“He’s just a good, complete player,” Collins said. “He maximizes every situation. One night he’ll beat you with his speed, the next his bat and the next his glove. We weren’t swinging the bat very well and then he hits the homer that gets the adrenaline going.”

The Angels put together a game-winning rally without getting the ball out of the infield Tuesday and they 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 concrete for a while.

For the first five innings, the Angels made a guy named Mike Oquist look like Sandy Koufax, mustering only 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 when Garret Anderson and Matt 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.