Angels Have Few Options in 8-6 Loss

The record will show that the Angels suffered a sudden-death loss Wednesday when Toronto’s Carlos Delgado lined a two-run home run to right field off reliever Lou Pote in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting the Blue Jays to an 8-6 victory before 32,497 in the SkyDome.

But this loss was more cumulative in nature, the result of days and weeks and months of excessive wear and tear on a resilient but beat-up Angel bullpen that has been stretched to the limits and was due to snap.

Angel right-hander Mark Petkovsek, making his 48th appearance, relieved starter Scott Schoeneweis in the seventh and gave up a two-run homer to Tony Batista, which turned a 5-4 Blue Jay deficit into a 6-5 lead.

Left-handed relief specialist Mike Holtz, who has 46 appearances in 3 1/2 months, threw 1 1/3 innings Tuesday and was unavailable to pitch to Delgado Wednesday. And closer Troy Percival and middle reliever Al Levine are on the disabled list.

“Without Al and Percy, those are two big voids on each end of the bullpen that have to be filled,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You can do that for a while, but eventually it catches up to you. I’d like to give Holtz, Petkovsek and [Shigetoshi] Hasegawa breathers whenever I can.”

The problem, though it’s one most managers would love to have, is the Angels are in almost every game and are often tied or leading late--63 of 120 games have been decided by two runs or fewer--so Scioscia has had to lean heavily on his front-line relievers.

While the starters have managed three complete games, Percival, Hasegawa, Petkovsek, Holtz and Levine have thrown 273 innings over 227 appearances.

But all the work has taken its toll. You could start a campfire with all the inflamed elbows (Percival, Levine, Mike Fyhrie) in the bullpen, and there was no relief Wednesday for an offense that scratched and clawed and literally kicked its way to the final inning.

Schoeneweis struggled early, throwing nine consecutive balls to open the game, and the Blue Jays scored on Delgado’s RBI single and Batista’s RBI double in the first. Troy Glaus’ 35th homer made it 2-1 in the second, but Blue Jay center fielder Jose Cruz Jr. homered in the third to make it 3-1.

Darin Erstad’s homer in the fifth pulled the Angels to within 3-2, and the Angels went ahead, 5-3, with two runs in the sixth (on Glaus’ RBI single and Adam Kennedy’s sacrifice fly) and one in the seventh (on Scott Spiezio’s RBI single).

Toronto had runners at first and third with one out in the seventh when Delgado ripped a grounder to the mound, but the ball nicked Schoeneweis’ glove and bounced to Kennedy’s left at second base. A potential inning-ending double-play ball became an RBI groundout.

Scioscia summoned Petkovsek to face Batista, who lined a 2-and-0 fastball over the wall in left for his 35th homer and a 6-5 lead.

“I’m going to have nightmares about that [Delgado] ground ball,” Schoeneweis said. “I got up on the mound and thought, ‘Get a ground ball right back to you,’ and bam, it came right back to me. I can’t believe I botched it. Next time I’ll think, ‘Get a ground ball, catch it, throw it.’ ”

The Blue Jay lead didn’t last long. Kennedy singled with one out in the eighth, stole second and scored on Kevin Stocker’s two-out single to left, a liner that reached outfielder Shannon Stewart well before Kennedy reached third.

Third base coach Ron Roenicke waved Kennedy home, and Stewart’s two-hop throw reached catcher Darrin Fletcher before the runner. But Kennedy jarred the ball--and Fletcher’s glove--loose with a hard, knee-first slide to forge a 6-6 tie.

Pote worked out of a two-on, none-out jam in the bottom of the eighth with the help of Toronto second baseman Craig Grebeck, who popped up a sacrifice bunt, and Glaus and Kennedy, who turned an inning-ending double play on Stewart’s grounder to third.

Scioscia had little-used left-hander Juan Alvarez warming up in the ninth but stuck with Pote against Delgado because he “needed some length” from the right-hander.

Length he got--Delgado’s 35th homer of the season traveled an estimated 408 feet.