Belle Tolling for Angels

Perhaps these Angels have strange mystical powers, because in one afternoon Sunday they managed to infuriate Albert Belle to the point where he actually spoke to the media and concoct even more outlandish ways to lose a baseball game.

Cal Ripken’s two-out, bases-loaded single in the 11th inning on his third full-count pitch from Shigetoshi Hasegawa lifted the Baltimore Orioles to an 8-7 victory before 44,724 in Camden Yards, extending the Angel losing streak to 10 and ending a bizarre, 3-hour 39-minute game in which Belle hit three home runs but created a bigger stir after being hit by a pitch in the 11th.

B.J. Surhoff was on first with one out when Belle, who handed Angel closer Troy Percival only his second blown save of the season with his game-tying home run in the ninth, was nicked in the chest by Hasegawa’s inside fastball.

Still steaming from Percival’s scary beanball to the helmet of Ripken in the 10th and Mike Holtz’s brushback pitch to Surhoff in the 11th, Belle glared at Hasegawa and told home-plate umpire Ed Hickox he wasn’t going to first.

The way Belle was hitting--he ripped a two-run homer off starter Chuck Finley in the first and a three-run shot off reliever Mark Petkovsek in the seventh for the third three-homer game of his career--who could blame him?

But a rule is a rule. Hickox ordered Belle to first, and when he refused again and words were exchanged with Angel catcher Matt Walbeck, Oriole Manager Ray Miller came to the plate, thinking Belle was about to charge the mound.

Miller finally persuaded Belle to go to first. From there Belle swore at Hasegawa using language even the Japanese right-hander could understand.

“I told Ray I wasn’t going to first,” Belle said in his first interview with the Baltimore media since the first day of spring training. “Their guy hit Cal and could have ended his career. I knew he was going to come up and in on me. They’ve been doing that the whole series.”

Hasegawa said the pitch slipped out of his hand, and Manager Terry Collins said there was no intent to hit Belle.

“We threw Belle three pitches out over the plate, and he hit them all out,” Collins said. “We’ve lost nine straight, you think we’re going to hit someone and put the winning run on second with [Jeff] Conine, [Will] Clark and Ripken coming up? No way.”

Conine flied to left for the second out of the 11th, which was good for Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina and second baseman Randy Velarde, who did not have to turn a double play with Belle bearing down on them.

“If Conine had hit a ground ball,” Miller said, “there might have been a dead infielder.”

Hasegawa then walked Clark on four pitches to load the bases before working the count full to Ripken, whose homer in the second was the 399th of his career. Ripken fouled two pitches off before lining a clean single to left for the game-winner, a stunner that left a dazed Angel team 15 1/2 games behind Texas in the American League West.

Conine robbed Tim Salmon of a grand slam in the first and Charlie O’Brien of a solo homer in the second, leaping above the wall to make each catch, while Belle’s first home run nicked off Salmon’s glove and went over the wall in right-center.

The Angels built a 7-3 lead in the fifth, scoring three in the first, one in the third on Velarde’s homer and three in the fifth, two on Mo Vaughn’s bases-loaded single. But they went hitless in the final six innings, with six consecutive strikeouts in the eighth and ninth, and their two best relievers, Petkovsek and Percival, couldn’t hold on.

After Rich Amaral and Delino DeShields singled off Finley in the seventh, Petkovsek, who entered with a 1.82 earned-run average but has been shaky of late, gave up a three-run homer to Belle, making the score 7-6.

Percival, who was 23 of 24 in save opportunities but had only one save since June 27, made one bad pitch in the ninth, a first-pitch fastball, up, that Belle deposited into the right-field seats for his 24th homer and a tie score.

“When me and Petkovsek can’t get the job done, that’s probably the last straw,” Percival said. “Who knows, maybe this is a good thing, because it can’t get any worse than this.”