Angels Don’t Get a Break in Seventh

Angel Manager Terry Collins had not seen replays of two highly questionable seventh-inning calls by the time he met with reporters after Wednesday night’s 6-5 loss to the Oakland Athletics in front of 8,377 in the Oakland Coliseum.

Had Collins had a chance to go to the videotape and seen just how a one-run Angel lead vanished, he might not have been so cordial. In fact, one would have completely understood if he had heaved his postgame meal against a wall and gone into a profanity laced tirade.

The first controversial call came on Jason McDonald’s one-out grounder to the shortstop hole. Andy Sheets made a strong throw, but umpire Drew Coble ruled that it pulled Darin Erstad’s foot off the bag. Replays showed the Angel first baseman’s foot was on the base as he made the catch.

The second was the even tougher for the Angels. A nasty full-count breaking ball in the dirt by Angel starter Chuck Finley appeared to strike out Jason Giambi, but home-plate umpire Gary Cederstrom ruled Giambi fouled it off. Replays on this one were conclusive: Giambi missed the pitch by at least four inches.

“He missed it by four inches at least,” Angel catcher Charlie O’Brien said. “He said it sounded like he tipped it. If you can’t see it, ask for help.”

Finley walked Giambi on his next pitch, putting runners on first and second, and Collins went to his trusty bullpen, which had not allowed an earned run in 16 2/3 innings over the previous five games.

The earned-runs streak remained intact. The bullpen’s air of invincibility did not.

Right-hander Shigetoshi Hasegawa walked John Jaha to load the bases, left- hander Mike Magnante walked Matt Stairs with a full-count pitch to force in the tying run, and Olmedo Saenz hit a sacrifice fly to center for the winning run.

The Angels threatened in the ninth when pinch-hitter Chris Pritchett singled and was bunted to second by Orlando Palmeiro. But A’s closer Billy Taylor retired pinch-hitters Matt Walbeck and Jeff Huson on fly balls to left for his second save.

“We still had a situation where our guys had to come in and go after someone,” Collins said, “and we didn’t do it.”

Left-hander Kenny Rogers has tormented the Angels with his tantalizing but hard-to-reach pitches for years, throwing a perfect game against them as a member of the Texas Rangers in 1994 and taking a career 11-5 record and 3.39 earned-run average against them into Wednesday night’s game.

The ledger is hardly even, but at least the Angels had the rare satisfaction of making Rogers squirm Wednesday night instead of vice versa.

After giving up three runs in the first, Rogers retired 11 consecutive batters and 15 of the next 17, giving up Erstad’s swinging-bunt single in the fifth and Garret Anderson’s bloop single in the sixth while protecting a 4-3 lead.

But the Angels knocked Rogers on his back--literally--with a two-run rally to take a 5-4 lead in the seventh. Tim Unroe, making his first start of the season, opened with a bloop single to center and Charlie O’Brien bunted him to second.

Sheets sent a full-swing tapper between the mound and first, and Rogers knocked the ball down and behind him with a dive. Falling to his back, Rogers flipped to first as Giambi scrambled to the bag, but Rogers’ throw handcuffed Giambi and got by for an error, allowing Unroe to score and Sheets to take second.

Erstad then grounded an RBI single up the middle to give the Angels a short-lived, one-run lead.

A lineup change by Oakland Manager Art Howe, who replaced struggling rookie Eric Chavez (.200) with right-handed hitting Saenz at third base, paid huge dividends.

Saenz followed Stairs’ second-inning walk with a walk of his own and scored on Miguel Tejada’s two-run single, and Saenz’s two-run double in the third gave the A’s a 4-3 lead.