Balk Is as Good as a Hit for Angels

His swing has been a bit ragged this month and his reputation as a clutch hitter has taken a beating, but Angel designated hitter Mo Vaughn may have corrected himself with one huge stroke Saturday night.

Vaughn, who hadn’t homered since May 30 and killed a third-inning rally with a double play Saturday night, sent an Andy Benes pitch over the wall in left field for a game-tying homer in the eighth inning.

Matt Walbeck later scored the winning run on reliever Byung-Hyun Kim’s bases-loaded balk and the Angels beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3, before 37,916 in Edison Field.

“They’d been getting me out the last couple of days, but I finally did what I was supposed to do, go with the pitch,” Vaughn said. “I got it up, and it carried for me. The main thing tonight is we won, we kept ourselves alive. That’s big, especially with the way they tore us up [Friday night].”

After Vaughn’s 14th homer, Todd Greene reached on a two-out infield single and was lifted for Walbeck. Diamondback Manager Buck Showalter summoned left-hander Greg Swindell to face Darin Erstad, who lined a single to center.

Kim came on and walked Troy Glaus to load the bases, and with a 2-2 count on pinch-hitter Jeff Huson, Walbeck made a false start toward home. Kim started his motion, then stopped, and homeplate umpire Jim Evans immediately called the balk.

“[Kim] threw two great pitches after being 2-0, so we tried to do something to throw him off a bit,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “Sometimes you’ve got to do stuff like that to break a pitcher’s concentration.”

Kim, the 20-year-old Korean right-hander who is the youngest player in the major leagues, threw his first four pitches to Huson from the stretch, but for some reason--unknown to the Diamondbacks--he switched to a full windup before the balk.

“I heard our people yelling, ‘He’s going home, he’s going home,’ ” Kim said through a translator. “I was a little bit shocked and nervous.”

And the Angels were thankful, as Walbeck jogged home with the winning run. Huson grounded out, and closer Troy Percival struck out two of three in the ninth for his 18th save.

That pulled the Angels to within 7 1/2 games of first-place Texas in a game ace Chuck Finley started--and, lucky for the Angels--finished on his own terms.

Finley arms and legs and spikes flew all over the place in the fifth, as the Angel pitcher and Diamondback center fielder Steve Finley hit the ground after a gnarly collision beyond first base.

Both Finleys remained in the game--remarkable for the Angels considering how many times the left-hander has injured himself playing defense. But the fall seemed to take something out of the Angel pitcher, who gave up Jay Bell’s 20th homer in the fifth and Matt Williams’ 18th homer in the sixth, as Arizona took a 3-2 lead.

“Kissing cousins, huh?” the Angel pitcher said of Finley vs. Finley. “I probably should have taken some more time to regroup before standing up there and facing Bell.”

Finley was replaced after seven innings by Mark Petkovsek, who improved to 5-1 with a scoreless eighth. The Angels scored twice in the first when Orlando Palmeiro, who has reached base eight times in 13 at-bats since moving to the leadoff spot Wednesday, singled and came home on Randy Velarde’s hit-and-run double.

Greene doubled for a 2-1 lead, which the Angels failed to pad after Palmeiro and Velarde walked to open the third. Vaughn, hobbled by a sore left ankle, grounded weakly to second. Velarde would have had to perform a two-point takedown and pin shortstop Hanley Frias to the second-base bag to prevent a double play, which the Diamondbacks turned easily.

But Benes and the Diamondbacks couldn’t hold Vaughn down in the eighth.

“That’s not the first time that’s happened,” Collins said. “There’s electricity when he does things. The fans feed off it, but we feed off it as well. He gets us excited when he comes through like that.”

After the game, the Angels recalled outfielders Matt Luke (five homers, 15 RBIs in six games since his return from a back injury) and Mike Colangelo (.362) from triple-A Edmonton, sent first baseman Chris Pritchett back to Edmonton and designated utility player Tim Unroe for assignment.