There’s No Relief in Sight as Angels Blow Another One

He was the one player the Angels could rely on in this season gone haywire, the one sure thing on a team full of uncertainties, but not on this trip.

Closer Troy Percival joined the rest of the Angels at the bottom of the barrel, blowing his second save opportunity in five days, and the Angels went on to lose to the Chicago White Sox, 4-3, in 12 innings Tuesday night before 14,943 in Comiskey Park.

White Sox designated hitter Frank Thomas knocked in the winning run, lining a single to left-center on an 0-2 pitch by Angel reliever Lou Pote, who went to high school a few blocks from Comiskey.

Pote had replaced left-hander Mike Holtz, who gave up a single to Ray Durham and walked Mike Caruso before departing. Pote won’t look back fondly on his first Comiskey appearance, but Percival, as he always does in these circumstances, took full responsibility for the loss.

Percival replaced starter Steve Sparks in the bottom of the ninth, but his third pitch, a 1-1 fastball to Paul Konerko, was lined over the center-field wall for a home run that tied the score, 3-3.

Percival, who has four blown saves, also gave up a game-tying home run to Detroit’s Tony Clark in the eighth inning of an eventual 8-7 loss to the Tigers on Friday night.

“It’s disappointing because I let the team down in a spot where we could have used a win,” Percival said. “The rest of the bullpen is beat. They didn’t need to be out there tonight.”

At least this time, Percival got beat with his best pitch. Clark hit a changeup out against Percival on Friday.

“If you’re looking for an excuse, you’re not going to get one,” Percival said. “I got beat with a fastball, belt-high over the middle. I’m on a roll where every bad pitch gets hit out of the park. That’s a product of me not throwing inside enough. Guys are jumping out over the plate against me.”

Manager Terry Collins believes it might also be a product of Percival’s irregular work schedule. The Angels have lost 25 of 32 games since the all-star break, and Percival has six save opportunities since July 9.

The White Sox had flailed away at Sparks’ knuckleballs for seven consecutive scoreless innings, managing one hit from the second through eighth.

It appeared Sparks might not make it out of a rocky first inning in which he walked three batters and gave up a two-run homer to Magglio Ordonez, a 422-foot bomb into the left-field seats.

Had first baseman Mo Vaughn not followed Durham’s leadoff walk by snagging Caruso’s line drive and turning it into a double play, the inning could have been a disaster for Sparks and the Angels.

But Sparks, wearing athletic goggles that made him look like Kurt Rambis, allowed only one other runner to reach second base the rest of the way, and the Angels, who didn’t exactly make the most of 11 hits off White Sox starter Jamie Navarro, produced just enough runs to take a lead into the ninth.

Vaughn sliced Chicago’s lead in half with his second home run in as many days--and the 250th homer of his career--to open the fourth. Tim Salmon walked and took third on Jim Edmonds’ single to right, and one out later, Jeff Huson tied the score, 2-2, with an RBI single to center.

DiSarcina opened the fifth with a single to left and took third on Garret Anderson’s single to center. Vaughn, apparently making more of an effort to turn on balls this past week, pulled an RBI single to right to give the Angels a 3-2 lead. But the Angels grounded into three double plays and left 13 on base.

“This game came down to the fact that we had chances to add on and didn’t do it,” Collins said. “We had guys on but couldn’t get a two-out hit.”