Even Mistakes Work Out for Unroe

Like his teammates and coaches, Angel utility player Tim Unroe has a patch of Gene Autry, the late Angel owner, sewn onto the right shoulder of his uniform. Or was that a Guardian Angel that accompanied Unroe Saturday night?

It sure seemed that way in the sixth inning, when Unroe turned two wrongs into rights in the Angels’ 8-6 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a victory that featured Mo Vaughn’s game-winning RBI single in the top of the eighth and a 16-hit Angel outburst in front of a Tropicana Field crowd of 23,168.

The Angels were trailing, 4-2, in the top of the sixth, which began with singles by Steve Decker and Troy Glaus, and Unroe was asked to bunt. After fouling off two attempts, Unroe ripped a two-run double to the gap in right center to tie the score.

With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Tampa Bay’s Fred McGriff lofted a medium fly ball down the right-field line, where Unroe, making his sixth start in right this season, made an ill-advised diving attempt.

The ball skipped to the wall and McGriff went for a triple, but Unroe threw to second baseman Randy Velarde, who fired a relay throw to third in time to nail McGriff.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” a bewildered Unroe said. “I made two mental errors and came out smelling like roses both times. The game just turns out that way sometimes.”

Said Angel Manager Terry Collins: “He was a lucky charm tonight.”

There was another strange twist for the Angels: Knuckleballer Steve Sparks had a rare trifecta, tying a major league record by hitting three consecutive batters in the third, two with the bases loaded, and tying American League and franchise records by hitting four batters in the game.

“Are any of the records solo?” said Sparks, who was disappointed to hear he shares the major league record with 17 others, the league record with 10 others and the club record with Ken McBride, who hit four Cleveland batters in a 1964 game. “Darn.”

Sparks also walked six and gave up five hits in five innings, but somehow limited the Devil Rays to four runs.

“Those knuckleballers are strange, man,” Vaughn said. “Anything can happen.”

It was left for Vaughn and closer Troy Percival to bring some normalcy back to the proceedings. For Vaughn, that meant coming through in the clutch; for Percival, that meant breezing through the ninth for his 11th save.

After Devil Ray leadoff batter Quinton McCracken golfed a Mark Petkovsek sinker into right for a two-run single and a 6-6 tie in the seventh, Darin Erstad and Velarde, who broke a 4-4 tie with an RBI single in the sixth, opened the eighth with singles.

Up stepped Vaughn, who struck out with the potential tying run on third and one out in the eighth inning of Friday night’s 10-9 loss. Redemption came with a ground ball up the middle off reliever Alan Newman for a 7-6 lead.

Todd Greene, who doubled in the first and had an RBI single in a two-run third, added an RBI single off reliever Esteban Yan for an insurance run.

“I know we’ve talked about it before, but when Mo walks in, he wants one thing to happen, to come up with the game on the line,” Collins said. “That’s why he’s special. There are nights when they get him out, but he knows that’s part of the game, and he can’t wait to get out there again.”

Vaughn said his eighth-inning at-bat Friday night did not weigh on his mind Saturday.

“I’m just looking to win the game,” Vaughn said. “The key mentally is to remember that what happened before doesn’t matter tonight.”

Angel left-hander Scott Schoeneweis relieved Petkovsek with one on in the eighth and retired McGriff (strikeout) and John Flaherty (groundout), and Percival retired the side in order in the ninth, the eighth consecutive appearance in which the right-hander has not given up a hit. It was also his seventh save in the last 16 games.