Percival, Angels Can’t Run From Another Tough Loss : Baseball: Reliever’s game still astray in 7-6 defeat to Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Some 40 minutes had passed since the Angels’ frustrating 7-6 loss to the Boston Red Sox Saturday, and Troy Percival, who gave up the game-winning hit for the second day in a row, had vanished like an Angel lead.

The Angel closer was not in the clubhouse, the training room or the showers. He was not in the equipment manager’s office or manager’s office.

A search party was quickly assembled, team officials fanned out in Fenway Park, and within minutes, Percival went from lost to found.

Don’t worry, Percival wasn’t atop the 37-foot-high Green Monster threatening to jump. But he was running laps around the field in front of 33,000 empty seats, blowing off steam the way he used to blow away batters before his recent skid.

“I’d rather run out there and work off some frustration than come in here and make a jackass out of myself,” Percival said. “It’s either that or throw [stuff] around the clubhouse and get someone hurt. I just felt like running today.”

And hiding. After giving up a two-run double to Troy O’Leary in the eighth inning Friday night, turning a one-run lead into a 4-3 loss, Percival gave up Jose Offerman’s two-out RBI double, which broke a 6-6 tie in the eighth Saturday.

Percival replaced reliever Lou Pote with runners on first and third and two out, but Offerman ripped a one-hopper that bounced into the right-field seats for a ground-rule double. Red Sox closer Derek Lowe retired the side in order in the top of the ninth.

Percival did not get a loss or a blown save, just another heaping helping of humility. In his last eight appearances, he is 1-1 with a 6.14 earned-run average and three blown saves in four opportunities. His season ERA has jumped from 1.99 to 2.63.

“Everything I throw is getting hit,” Percival said. “I threw a live bullpen today and threw as well as I have in awhile. Then I went out there in the game and didn’t stay with it. . . . I’m going to keep going out there until I get it right.”

The Angels have made a mess of everything lately, and not just Percival. They scored four runs in the third inning Saturday, Jim Edmonds, Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson hitting RBI singles, to take a 4-1 lead.

But knuckleballer Steve Sparks walked two and hit a batter in the bottom of the fourth, and Boston countered with four runs, three on Jason Varitek’s bases-loaded double to the right-center field gap that eluded a diving Edmonds’ glove by inches.

The Red Sox scored in the sixth to make it 6-4, but the Angels, taking advantage of John Valentin’s throwing error at third, scored twice in the top of the eighth, Gary DiSarcina hitting a two-out RBI single to make it 6-6.

The Angels can’t hold a lead--why should anyone think they could hold a tie? They went on to their fourth consecutive loss, fell a whopping 26 games behind Texas, and are 1-8 against the Red Sox this season, 0-5 in Fenway Park.

Mirroring the Angels’ struggles in Boston is former Red Sox slugger Mo Vaughn, who is one for 15 in four Fenway games and was hitless in four at-bats Saturday after missing Friday’s game to attend a funeral.

Vaughn, who helped the Red Sox reach the playoffs twice in eight years and was the 1995 league most valuable player, was booed before every plate appearance and cheered after his ninth-inning strikeout.

“I’ve been booed here as a home player too, so that’s not a factor,” Vaughn said. “I don’t worry about that stuff. I’m just trying to get through this year and come back healthy next year.”

Vaughn suffered a severe ankle sprain on opening night, “And he has played on one leg all year,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said.

But Vaughn refuses to make excuses for his subpar year.

“I’ve partied for seven years, and I’m going to party again next year,” Vaughn said. “Payback will be something. We’ve got a lot of talent here, but there’s a way to approach the game and a way to play it. As a team, we have to learn that.

“It’s all the little things, all the execution on offense and defense. There’s a lot of routine things we’ve got to get better at. It took awhile to get things right over here in Boston, and we’ll get it right here too.”