Knuckleballer’s Effort Wasted in Loss to Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles had no problem catching up to Troy Percival’s 96-mph fastballs in Saturday’s 3-2 victory over the Angels, but they looked as if they were blindfolded in the batter’s box as they flailed away at Steve Sparks’ 72-mph knuckleballs.

Sparks, the most pleasant surprise in a season of unexpected contributions for the Angels, pitched one of his best games of the year, shutting out the Orioles on five hits over 7 2/3 innings, striking out six and walking six.

The right-hander got out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the fifth inning by getting cleanup batter Rafael Palmeiro to fly out and escaped damage in the eighth when reliever Mike Holtz came on with two on and two out to retire B.J. Surhoff on a fly ball.

“He abused us all day long,” Baltimore center fielder Brady Anderson said of Sparks, who threw 143 pitches.

The Orioles are used to such abuse in Camden Yards. Former Angel knuckleballer Dennis Springer was 1-1 with an 0.52 earned-run average in Baltimore in 1996 and ‘97, giving up just one earned run in 17 1/3 innings and shutting out the Orioles, 13-0, in August ’96.

Angel Manager Terry Collins had a hunch Sparks would do well against the Orioles.

“He did a tremendous job for us,” Collins said. “It’s just a shame. You hate to have a great pitching performance go down the drain like that, because they’re hard to come by.”

*

Saturday’s game ended with Anderson crashing into Angel catcher Phil Nevin just as Jim Edmonds’ one-hop throw from center field arrived. The ball squirted loose in the bone-jarring collision, and Anderson scored the winning run.

“I’m not even sure the ball hit my glove,” Nevin said. “He hit me just as the ball got to me. There’s not much you can do except hope the ball sticks in the leather.”

Nevin was more numbed by the loss than the collision.

“You’re riding high for eight innings. . .and with the big man [Percival] coming in you like your odds,” Nevin said. “But Troy is human. These things are going to happen. You give me the same situation [today] and I’ll take it. He’s one of the best in the game, and he’ll be there for us.”

He wasn’t there for the media immediately after the game. Percival is usually at his locker after blown saves, his chair facing outward, waiting for reporters and wanting to get his postgame interviews over with.

But Percival stewed for about half an hour, staring into his locker for a good amount of time before addressing the press.

“This one is going to tick me off more than most,” Percival said. “But it’s not going to faze me for [today].”

*

Camden Yards may be a jewel among stadiums, but the Angels must be developing an aversion to the place. They have lost seven consecutive games in Baltimore dating to last season, and their last five have been crushing defeats. The Angels were swept in a three-game series Aug. 16-18, 1997, losing all three games by one run. They blew a three-run lead in Friday night’s 8-3 loss and gave up three in the bottom of the ninth in Saturday’s 3-2 loss. . . . The Angels scored unearned runs against Mike Mussina in the second and fourth innings Saturday, Chris Pritchett coming home when second baseman Roberto Alomar lost control of the ball on a double-play attempt in the second and Norberto Martin scoring on third baseman Cal Ripken’s error in the fourth. Garret Anderson, who had three hits, singled to start each rally.

TODAY’S GAME

ANGELS’

JACK McDOWELL

(4-3, 4.12 ERA)

vs.

ORIOLES’

ROCKY COPPINGER

(0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Camden Yards, Baltimore, 10:30 a.m.

Radio--KRLA (1110), XPRS (1090).

* Update--Collins had a different perspective on Saturday’s game--the Angel manager coached third after third-base coach Larry Bowa was ejected in the bottom of the first for arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire Rick Reed. McDowell, a 2-1 winner over Kansas City in his last start, will once again try to find a way to contain Oriole catcher Chris Hoiles, who has a .405 career average against the Angel right-hander (17 for 42) with three homers and eight runs batted in. The Angels reported that more than a 1,000 fans lined up at Edison Field to purchase playoff tickets Saturday morning. The team can only hope that the fans didn’t have their radios tuned to the ninth inning of Saturday’s game.