Nine-Run Inning Just Gets Angels Over the Hill, 10-8

The reviews came in early for Ken Hill on Wednesday night. Give the Angel pitcher one thumb--and two fingers--down.

The previously dormant Angel offense did far better at the box office, exploding for nine runs on nine hits in the third inning en route to a 10-8 victory over the Minnesota Twins before 20,070 in Edison Field.

And the Angel bullpen? It got panned, nearly blowing an eight-run lead and turning what should have been an easy victory over a lineup that included two players making their major league debuts into a cliffhanger, one that ended with Troy Percival striking out two of three in the ninth for his 39th save.

Omar Olivares (8-8) did a good job in relief of the injured Hill, giving up one run on four hits, including David Ortiz’s sixth-inning home run, in 4 2/3 innings before giving way to Shigetoshi Hasegawa to start the seventh.

Hasegawa had not given up a run in his previous nine appearances, a span covering 14 1/3 innings, but that streak ended when he gave up Denny Hocking’s RBI double and Todd Walker’s RBI single, as the Twins cut the Angel lead to 10-5.

Then Angel left-hander Trevor Wilson came on to start the eighth and walked Ortiz and hit A.J. Pierzynski to open the inning. Manager Terry Collins summoned right-hander Pep Harris, who walked Chris Latham to load the bases.

Alex Ochoa followed with a sinking liner to left-center that Orlando Palmeiro appeared to lose in the lights, trying a sliding catch as the ball skipped past him for a three-run triple, making it 10-8.

Harris escaped further damage by getting Hocking on a comebacker, striking out Corey Koskie and getting Paul Molitor to ground to short.

The win allowed the Angels to maintain their two-game lead over surging Texas in the American League West heading into a seven-game trip to Baltimore (three games), Tampa Bay (two games) and Texas (two games).

After ending an 18-inning scoreless drought with one run in the second, the Angels sent 14 batters to the plate in the third, amassing a season high for runs and hits in an inning and scoring more runs in the third than they had in the previous four games on the home stand.

The outburst included Tim Salmon’s two-run home run, a 422-foot bomb that was the Angels’ first homer in 41 innings and Salmon’s 25th of the season.

Jim Edmonds added a two-run double, the franchise-record 280th double of the season for the Angels. Edmonds and Garret Anderson each had two hits in the inning, which gave the Angels a 10-2 lead.

The rally provided at least a temporary distraction to what could be another disturbing injury in a season marked by injuries to key players.

Walker’s line drive to lead off the second inning deflected off Hill’s right hand and into center field, the seventh time this season (Chuck Finley twice, Jeff Juden, Allen Watson, Olivares and Hasegawa once) an Angel pitcher had been nailed by a comebacker.

Hill, the right-hander who missed 2 1/2 months after undergoing elbow surgery on June 15, remained in the game but was ineffective, giving up two more hits in the inning before being replaced by Olivares with the Twins leading, 2-0.

Hill had a bruised thumb, index and middle fingers of his right hand and was taken to Chapman General Hospital--where the Angels by now are on a first-name basis with all the radiology department technicians--for precautionary X-rays.

By the time Hill got to the hospital, the Angels had gone from two runs down to eight runs up, Gary DiSarcina’s RBI groundout in the second trimming the deficit to one and Randy Velarde opening the third with a single off Twin starter Frank Rodriguez.

Velarde took second on an errant pickoff attempt and scored on Edmonds’ single to center. Salmon’s homer made it 4-2, but the Angels were far from done. Anderson and Chris Pritchett singled and advanced on Craig Shipley’s sacrifice bunt against reliever Dan Serafini.

After a walk loaded the bases, DiSarcina had an RBI single, Palmeiro got a two-run hit, Edmonds had a two-run double and Anderson’s single drove in the final run of the inning.

* DODGERS WIN, 6-2: C3