Angels Only Few Feet Shy of a Rally

Todd Greene’s ninth-inning fly ball went all the way to the wall in left-center, where it landed in Baltimore Oriole outfielder B.J. Surhoff’s glove to seal the Angels’ 3-2 loss before 22,058 in Edison Field on Wednesday night.

The scoreboard totals were correct. Oriole right-hander Sidney Ponson, who was masterful during an eight-inning, two-run, four-hit effort, was the winner, improving to 5-3.

Arthur Rhodes, who got Mo Vaughn to line out to first, Garret Anderson to pop to third--both had homered earlier--and Greene on his deep fly in the ninth, got the save.

But Tim Belcher hardly seemed like the loser.

After getting shredded like a helpless rookie in six of his first seven starts, Belcher is finally beginning to hold up his end of what the Angels thought was a bargain: a two-year, $10.2-million deal for a veteran pitcher with a 136-127 career record and 3.97 earned-run average.

The right-hander overcame a shaky start Wednesday night to retire 15 consecutive batters between the third and seventh innings, hardly overpowering the Orioles but spotting his fastballs and breaking balls on both corners.

Belcher was pulled after walking Charles Johnson to open the eighth, and though his record fell to 3-4, he gave up only three runs on four hits in seven innings, walking two and striking out one, and lowering his ERA from 8.23 to 7.67.

In his past three starts, Belcher is 2-1 and has given up nine earned runs in 19 innings, not exactly Cy Young-type stuff but a drastic improvement from April and early May.

“I’ve had bad starts before, and at times I’ve wondered if confidence was a problem,” Belcher said. “Then I looked at the calendar and realized how long the season was. I’m healthy, I’m intelligent, I’m a veteran. . . . I just realized I had to grind through it.

“I had to realize that I wasn’t going to get my ERA down in one or two starts. I just had to peck away at it. And really, what does ERA mean any more, honestly? We’re playing in smaller parks, the guys are huge, and they’re hitting Titleists.”

Belcher’s start Wednesday night mirrored his previous start, when he gave up four runs to the Orioles in five innings and retired the side in order in the sixth and seventh to help the Angels to a 6-4 win in Baltimore last Thursday.

There were several mistakes early Wednesday, most notably a belt-high fastball that Harold Baines belted into the right-field seats for a 1-0 lead in the second.

It was Baines’ 356th career homer, moving him into 50th place on baseball’s all-time list, and his 1,510th RBI, which moved him into 36th place--ahead of Mickey Mantle.

Will Clark doubled, took third on a passed ball and scored on Johnson’s two-out single to center.

Mike Bordick led off the third by slamming a fat 2-2 fastball over the left-field wall for a home run and a 3-0 lead, but Belcher was perfect over the next four innings.

Scott Schoeneweis relieved Belcher and retired the side in order in the eighth and ninth, but the Angels couldn’t mount another threat against Ponson, who threw a complete-game, six-hitter in a 3-2 win over Texas last Friday and was even better Wednesday night.

Ponson gave up Vaughn’s homer--his 10th--to open the fourth and Anderson’s homer--his 11th and third in two days--with two out in the sixth, but gave up only four hits, struck out five and walked one.

Of the Angels’ 20 runs in five games against the Orioles this season, 15 have come by home run, and the Angels thought Greene had another in the ninth.

“I thought that ball was out--didn’t we move those fences in?” Manager Terry Collins said, referring to the fence in left-center being nine feet closer to the plate than it was in 1998. “Maybe we need something where we can move them in during the game.”