Percival’s ‘Experiment’ Blows Up in Angels’ Faces

Troy Percival calls his changeup “an experimental pitch,” and when the Angel closer threw one to Tony Clark in the bottom of the eighth inning Friday night he probably wished he was wearing protective goggles.

The ensuing meeting of baseball and bat produced an explosion that resulted in Clark’s tying home run, and the Detroit Tigers went on to defeat the Angels, 8-7, in 10 innings before 32,003 in Tiger Stadium.

“That’s my third-best pitch, and that was a bad time to throw it,” Percival said. “I didn’t stay aggressive, which is against what I normally do. It was a stupid mistake, and it won’t happen again.”

Detroit scored the winning run when Brad Ausmus opened the 10th with a single off Shigetoshi Hasegawa, was sacrificed to second, took third on a fly ball and came home on Dean Palmer’s single to center, sending the Angels to their seventh consecutive loss and 23rd in 27 games. But this one was decided in the eighth.

Angel reliever Mark Petkovsek had replaced starter Tim Belcher in the sixth and retired five straight batters, but Angel Manager Terry Collins, remembering the game-winning home run Palmer hit off Petkovsek May 4 and the three balls Palmer drilled Friday night--a liner for an out, a single and his 28th home run--summoned Percival to face Palmer with one out in the eighth.

Percival struck out Palmer with a full-count curve, but Clark, batting from the left slide, reached out for a 2-and-2 Percival changeup and lined it into the left-field bleachers for a home run that tied the score, 7-7.

It was the first earned run the Tigers had ever scored against Percival, snapping a 23 2/3-inning scoreless streak.

Catcher Matt Walbeck had called for a fastball against Clark, and when Percival shook him off, Walbeck called several other pitches before Percival agreed to the changeup.

“Troy is one of the best closers in the game,” Walbeck said. “If he has confidence that he wants to throw something that badly, who am I to say no? If it was a rookie or something, I would have gone to the mound, but he threw what he thought would be the best pitch to get the guy out with.”

Percival, who has been trying to mix in more curves and changeups with his 95-mph fastball in recent weeks, said the changeup felt great in the bullpen Friday night, and he tried to throw it down and away to Clark.

“But I left it up and out over the plate, and he got it pretty good,” Percival said. “I should have gone with my strength. It’s a shame it wasn’t a physical mistake, it was more mental.”

Wasted was the Angels’ best offensive output in a week, a game in which Troy Glaus and Tim Salmon each homered, Salmon’s two-run shot capping a three-run fifth.

The Angels also manufactured runs: Gary DiSarcina bunting Garret Anderson to third and Mo Vaughn knocking him in with a groundout in the first inning, Walbeck hustling to second on Anderson’s fly ball to deep center and scoring on DiSarcina’s single in the fifth, and Jeff Huson executing a perfect hit-and-run play to move Glaus to third in the sixth.

Glaus scored on Walbeck’s sacrifice fly to give the Angels a 7-3 lead, but they couldn’t hold it. Belcher, who survived a shaky three-run first inning to throw 4 1/3 scoreless, one-hit innings, was rocked by Palmer’s bases-empty homer and Frank Catalanotto’s two-run homer in the sixth, as the Tigers cut the lead to 7-6.

Then came the fateful eighth, when Percival gave up his sixth homer of the season, and the 10th, when Hasegawa took the loss.