Angels Get Good Look at Cooper

Angel pitcher Brian Cooper is a wisp of a right-hander, a 6-foot-1, 170-pounder who can make even today’s uniform pants look baggy and who probably wouldn’t intimidate a lineup of high school batters.

The little guy was a huge presence on the mound Friday night, though, pitching his way out of several tight spots to keep the Angels in a game they eventually lost to the Seattle Mariners, 4-3, in 10 innings before 44,403 in Safeco Field.

Darin Erstad’s two-out homer off Jose Mesa gave the Angels a 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th, but another shoddy Troy Percival outing brought an end to the Angels’ three-game win streak.

Percival, who has seven blown saves in his last 17 appearances, walked Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez on four pitches each to start the bottom of the 10th, then bounced a curve behind Tom Lampkin for a wild pitch that advanced both runners.

Lampkin’s sacrifice fly to right scored Griffey with the tying run and moved pinch-runner Shane Monahan to third, after which Angel interim Manager Joe Maddon pulled Percival because of an inflamed shoulder.

Reliever Mark Petkovsek walked Ryan Jackson, and David Bell, with the outfielders shallow, lined out to Jim Edmonds in center.

Monahan tagged, and Edmonds made a strong, on-line throw home, but the ball nicked the mound and caromed toward the first-base line, allowing Monahan to score the winning run without a slide.

Providing the silver lining was Cooper, who gave up two runs on seven hits, including Lampkin’s two-run homer in the fourth--in 6 2/3 innings, striking out five and walking two in his fourth major league start.

Even more impressive was the poise the rookie displayed when he ran into trouble. Cooper helped extricate himself from a two-on, one-out jam in the first by picking off Alex Rodriguez at second.

After Charles Gipson’s one-out triple in the fifth, Cooper got Brian Hunter to ground out with the infield in. Cooper hit Rodriguez with a pitch, putting runners on first and third for Griffey, but Cooper got Griffey to tap to second, ending the inning.

Cooper struck out Raul Ibanez with two on to end the sixth and made perhaps his best pitch of the game to strike out Rodriguez with a runner on third and one out in the seventh.

Hunter had tripled to right-center to bring up Rodriguez, who was 15 for 26 (.577) with five homers against the Angels this season and 62 for 174 (.356) with 12 homers lifetime against them.

Those bloated statistics came down a little after Rodriguez struck out swinging at a changeup that appeared to be headed for the strike zone but dropped to Rodriguez’s ankles by the time he swung at it.

Mo Vaughn had given the Angels a 1-0 lead in the fourth with his team-leading 30th home run, a prodigious blast to the upper deck just inside the right-field foul pole, the first home run to reach Safeco’s third deck.

The shot off Mariner rookie Gil Meche, estimated at 444 feet, made Vaughn the 11th player in Angel history to hit 30 home runs in a season and the 10th player in club history to hit 30 homers and drive in 100 runs.

The lead lasted about as long as it took Vaughn’s drive to reach the seats. After Martinez singled with one out in the bottom of the fourth, Lampkin tore into a thigh-high Cooper fastball, driving it over the center-field wall to put Seattle ahead, 2-1.