Too Bad Vaughn Can’t Pitch

For 4 1/2 innings Thursday night, an Angel offense that had short-circuited for the past four games was All Systems Mo.

A prodigious home run by Mo Vaughn in his first-at bat since April 6 sparked a power surge through a lifeless lineup, which added two more homers and built an early five-run lead.

But Angel starter Tim Belcher went haywire in the bottom of the fifth, and the Toronto Blue Jays eventually came back for an 8-7 victory before 28,212 in the SkyDome, winning their eighth consecutive game and sending the Angels to their fifth loss in a row.

Troy Percival walked Tony Fernandez with the bases loaded in the eighth, providing Toronto’s winning margin, but it would be unfair to pin this loss on the Angel closer.

After scoring seven runs on eight hits in the first five innings, the Angels failed to get a hit off Blue Jay relievers Nerio Rodriguez, Dan Plesac, Tom Davey and Graeme Lloyd in the final four innings.

Control problems by relievers Mark Petkovsek and Scott Schoeneweis, who each walked batters before Percival in the eighth, didn’t help, and Belcher gave up two-run homers to Shawn Green and Darrin Fletcher in the fifth, letting the Blue Jays trim a 7-2 deficit to 7-6.

“This one is clearly on me,” said Belcher, who gave up six runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings. “If your starter can’t hold a 7-2 lead, you’re in trouble. You can’t expect the bullpen to perform miracles for you and the offense to keep pounding out runs. Seven runs ought to be enough.”

Vaughn, fresh off the disabled list after spraining his left ankle in the season opener, sent the first live-action pitch he had seen in 16 days into orbit, blasting a Pat Hentgen fastball off the glass roof of the restaurant above the SkyDome’s center-field fence.

The shot--Vaughn’s fifth career homer off the Blue Jay right-hander--was estimated at 451 feet but looked closer to 500.

“When we saw that,” pitcher Chuck Finley said, “everyone patted the trainer on the back.”

Vaughn’s blast seemed to inspire the Angels, who went two for 18 with runners in scoring position Tuesday and Wednesday. They got two-out, two-run home runs from Darin Erstad--his first homer since July 10, 1998--in the second inning and Garret Anderson in the fifth night to take the 7-2 lead.

But the lead began to vanish when Green and Fletcher homered in the fifth, Green’s 449-foot bomb reaching the upper deck in right field, only the second homer in SkyDome history to land in the fifth deck in right.

Blue Jay No. 9 batter Pat Kelly, who homered off Belcher in the fourth, led off the sixth with a bases-empty homer off reliever Al Levine, tying the score, 7-7. It was the first earned run given up on the road by the Angel bullpen in 26 innings this season.

Kelly led off the eighth with a bloop single off Petkovsek, Shannon Stewart sacrificed Kelly to second, and Jose Cruz walked. Schoeneweis came on to strike out the red-hot Green, but he walked Carlos Delgado to load the bases.

Angel Manager Terry Collins summoned Percival, who hadn’t pitched in five days and hasn’t had a save opportunity since the season opener, but Percival walked Fernandez on a full-count pitch.

“That’s the life of a closer,” Percival said of his long layoff. “Sure, you’d like to get a lot of work, but that doesn’t always happen. I’ve still got to stay sharp and be ready for these situations. I don’t need any excuses made for me. I didn’t do the job.”

The Angels (6-10) fell four games under .500 for the first time since May 12, 1997, and they have fallen into a vicious cycle--the nights they hit, they don’t pitch well, and the nights they pitch well they don’t hit.

There is some good news, though. Erstad snapped out of a one-for-17 slump with his homer and a double, Anderson prefaced his homer with an RBI double in the third, Troy Glaus stayed hot with a double and a single, and Vaughn did not tweak his ankle Thursday night.

“This team is going to be fine,” said Vaughn, who was the designated hitter. “Some days the pitching picks the hitters up, and some days the hitters pick the pitchers up. It’s going to turn, and when it does it will be like wildfire.”

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DODGER REPORT: After Wednesday’s loss, Brown beginning to wonder a bit. Page 10