Percival, Angels Can’t Close the Deal Against White Sox

It’s the ultimate indignity for baseball’s elite closers, taking the mound to start the ninth inning with a two-run lead and walking off the mound and into the dugout to a smattering of boos before the game is over.

This is not familiar territory for Troy Percival, but it was where Percival traveled Saturday night, when the Chicago White Sox scored five runs in the top of the ninth inning against the ultra-reliable reliever and beat the Angels, 8-5, before 35,296 in Edison Field.

Ray Durham snapped a 5-5 tie with a three-run home run off Percival, and that ended the Angels’ three-game win streak. Percival gave up five runs, the most of any outing in his big league career, and five hits in the ninth before being pulled for Mark Petkovsek.

White Sox reliever David Lundquist, who struck out three in two scoreless innings, earned his first victory, and closer Bob Howry struck out two of three in the ninth for his seventh save.

Trailing, 5-3, Greg Norton opened the ninth by blasting a 2-and-1 Percival fastball into the right-field seats for his first home run, and Darrin Jackson followed with a single to center.

Paul Konerko popped to third for the first out, but Jeff Abbott, who had one hit and eight strikeouts in 27 at-bats (.037) against right-handers this season, lined a hit-and-run single through the hole vacated by second baseman Randy Velarde, advancing Jackson to third.

Chicago Manager Jerry Manuel sent left-handed hitting Jeff Liefer up to hit for Brook Fordyce, and with pinch-runner McKay Christensen running from first, Liefer blooped an RBI single into shallow left-center field.

Had Angel shortstop Andy Sheets not broken toward second base to cover the bag, he would have had a decent chance of catching the blooper. Instead, Liefer wound up with his first RBI, and the score was tied, 5-5.

Durham then ripped an 0-and-1 pitch into the right-field seats for his sixth homer and an 8-5 lead.

Wasted was a vintage outing by Chuck Finley, who worked his way out of an occasional jam during his seven innings and pitched well enough to earn a victory, but not quite well enough to make anyone in the Angel dugout feel secure.

It wasn’t the best outing of his career by any means, but Finley was more than competent, giving up three runs and eight hits in seven innings, striking out four and walking two.

Also wasted was Garret Anderson’s three hits and two RBIs, and another strong outing by Velarde, who had an RBI single and a solo homer.

While Tim Salmon has garnered headlines with the most prolific April of his career and Mo Vaughn has grabbed the spotlight with his clutch hits and gargantuan home runs, Velarde has been doing superb work in the shadows.

His defense has been first-rate, and he has made so many strong throws from behind the second-base bag that his surgically repaired right elbow is no longer an issue.

But Velarde, who sat out the 1997 season and four months of 1998 because of his injury, has also been a force offensively, with a .333 average, 18 runs, a team-high 33 hits, four stolen bases and 12 RBIs.

Batting in the second spot in place of Jim Edmonds for most of the season, Velarde has shown an increased ability to hit to the opposite field, which he did when he lined an RBI single to right for a 1-0 lead in the first, without sacrificing any power.

Leading off the third, Velarde belted a 2-and-0 James Baldwin fastball into the left-field seats for his second homer and a 2-0 lead. Anderson’s RBI single, which followed Troy Glaus’ single and stolen base, made the score 3-0 in the fourth.

Chicago nicked Finley for two runs in the fifth, as Jackson doubled and scored on Fordyce’s RBI groundout, and Abbott walked and eventually scored on Durham’s RBI single, but the Angels answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Vaughn led off with a walk, Salmon reached on an infield single and, after Darin Erstad’s fielder’s choice, Glaus beat out a grounder behind the third-base bag for an RBI single.

Anderson capped the rally with an RBI single, bringing the score to 5-2 and an end to the evening for Baldwin, who gave up five runs and 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings and now has a 1-5 record and 5.96 earned-run average against the Angels.