Rusty Percival Survives Wild Ninth Inning

Troy Percival wasn’t battling the Yankees Sunday so much as he was battling himself. The Angel closer hadn’t pitched in a week when he took the mound in the bottom of the ninth inning with a 4-1 lead, and it showed.

Percival--who allowed no runs, one hit, struck out 19 and walked one in his previous 16 1/3 innings dating to May 1--couldn’t throw his fastball inside. He was wild high and wild low. His breaking ball wouldn’t cut him a break. Mechanically, he was a mess.

Emotionally, so were the Angels.

Manager Terry Collins called the ninth inning “agonizing.” Mo Vaughn, in the clubhouse for the end, couldn’t watch, covering his face with a towel at one point.

A walk and two singles netted the Yankees one run, their first against Percival in five seasons. With runners on first and third, Tony Tarasco and Chili Davis missed potential game-tying doubles by inches.

Finally, with the bases loaded, Percival got Scott Brosius to ground into a double play, netting the closer his 19th save and the Angels their first win in more than a week, one Percival hopes will serve as a springboard.

“We’re nine games out right now--we have to win seven out of every 10 games,” Percival said. “Whether it’s Darin Erstad getting three bloop hits or Matt Luke hitting a bomb . . . if Terry Collins has to run the bases, it doesn’t matter, we have to win.”

After playing an exhibition today against their double-A team in Erie, Pa., the Angels will begin a 15-game stretch against American League West teams, and there is definitely a sense of urgency among the Angels.

“If we don’t start winning, this thing could be over by the All-Star break,” said Erstad, whose backhand diving stop of Paul O’Neill’s first-inning grounder may have saved two runs. “We’ve got to get the job done, or we’ll play the second half of the season for no reason.”

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Angel right fielder Reggie Williams said he had to have made the catch on Chuck Knoblauch’s controversial eighth-inning fly ball. Otherwise, he wouldn’t still have his glove.

Williams started a tradition long ago in the minor leagues--if he misses a fly ball, he throws his glove out. While playing for triple-A Albuquerque in 1994, Williams said he missed a ball with one out and tossed his glove over the fence.

“I played the last two outs of the inning with no glove,” Williams said. “Luckily, nothing was hit to me.”

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Angel right-hander Tim Belcher rebounded from Tuesday’s sloppy performance in Toronto by limiting the Yankees to one run--Bernie Williams’ third-inning homer--on five hits in eight innings Sunday. Belcher threw 88 pitches, 57 for strikes, winning in Yankee Stadium for only the second time.

“It was a good win,” Belcher said. “I think we ought to go into Erie [today] with a lot of confidence.”