Vaughn’s Home Run Carries the Angels, 4-3

Fans cheer, without the scoreboard prompting them. The hot dog line freezes, and the hungry folks twist their heads toward home plate. Kids grab the cellular phone away from their parents, pointing urgently to the big guy in periwinkle and pinstripes.

Now batting for the Angels: No. 42, Mo Vaughn.

Not since Reggie Jackson wore the halo have Anaheim fans buzzed with such anticipation for one of their own. Chuck Finley, who played with Jackson on the Angels’ last division championship squad in 1986, figures he knows why.

“People want to see what $80 million looks like,” Finley said.

Looks like a winner. Vaughn can barely walk, still hobbled by an ankle injury, but he can carry the Angels atop his shoulders with the greatest of ease. He hit the game-winning home run Sunday, a three-run bomb off Jose Rosado that lifted the Angels to a 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

An Edison Field crowd of 31,429 roared itself hoarse cheering for Vaughn, the biggest star but not the only one. Darin Erstad homered too, Randy Velarde collected three hits and Omar Olivares and Troy Percival stopped the Royals on six hits.

Olivares tipped his cap to Vaughn. The Angels led, 1-0, going into the fifth inning, but the Royals scored twice, and the Angels never had beaten Rosado in eight tries.

In the bottom of the fifth, Vaughn rescued Olivares and the Angels, hitting a two-out, three-run homer to put the Angels ahead to stay. Olivares (6-3) lasted through the eighth inning, earning his third consecutive victory, and Percival pitched a perfect ninth for his 14th save.

“After Mo hit that home run, I kind of got a second breath,” Olivares said. “I didn’t want to waste the opportunity.

“I wanted to finish the game, but I knew if I got through the eighth, we had Troy.”

Without a lead, of course, there is no game for Percival to save, and so the Angels salute Vaughn.

“We’d be buried, probably, without him,” Finley said.

Vaughn is hitting .313 and ranks among American League leaders in home runs (13) and runs batted in (38). He has driven in a run that gave the Angels a lead 12 times and driven in a run that tied a game another four times.

This, mind you, for a team with only 24 victories, with sluggers Jim Edmonds and Tim Salmon out of the lineup because of injuries and Erstad and Troy Glaus suffering intermittent power outages. Steve Decker, 33, batted behind Vaughn on Sunday; Decker never had batted cleanup in the major leagues.

“With our lineup, it’s amazing what he’s done,” Angel third base coach Larry Bowa said. “I’m sure guys are trying to pitch around him, and he’s still hitting.”

Disney dollars do not flow so freely that the Angels can spend $80 million to sign Vaughn without thinking twice, or three times, or four. The Angels, remember, had never signed a player for more than $22.5 million.

The man most responsible for the purchase of Vaughn couldn’t praise him enough Sunday.

“It’s everything from his God-given ability to his desire to be the guy in the clutch to his sense of responsibility to his sense of fraternity with his teammates,” General Manager Bill Bavasi said.

“One thing I’m happy about is that these fans are enjoying something special.”

This is what it is like to cheer for Ken Griffey Jr. in Seattle, for Jose Canseco in Tampa Bay, fo--dare we say it--Mark McGwire in St. Louis and Sammy Sosa in Chicago. The big gu--your team’s big gu--is coming to the plate, and you better pay attention or risk missing something special.

“If you walk out on the concourse, people just stop,” Angel Vice President Tim Mead said.

Leave in the seventh inning to beat the traffic? Who doesn’t? It’s a Southern California ballpark tradition.

Mo Vaughn is changing traffic patterns.

“I’ve seen games where we’re completely out of it in the seventh inning,” Bowa said, “but Mo’s coming up in the eighth inning. They don’t leave until he hits.

“You don’t see that very often here.”