Angels Win One Despite Themselves

The Angels won a game they had no business winning Tuesday, not with the way they butchered a ninth inning that included a questionable pitch by closer Troy Percival, an ill-advised attempt of a spectacular catch by right fielder Orlando Palmeiro, and a mental gaffe by center fielder Garret Anderson that was identical to one he committed six days ago.

But as ugly as the confluence of Angel mistakes that led to San Diego outfielder Ruben Rivera’s game-tying inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the ninth, the top of the 11th was just as unsightly for the Padres.

San Diego right fielder Eric Owens misplayed Troy Glaus’ two-out bloop hit into a triple, and closer Trevor Hoffman bounced a breaking ball to the backstop, allowing Glaus to score the winning run for a 3-2 interleague victory over the Padres before 21,835 at Qualcomm Stadium.

Al Levine, whose error on Owens’ bases-loaded, 10th-inning bunt allowed San Diego to score the winning run Sunday, threw two scoreless innings of relief to gain the win, and the Angels did not waste another superb start by Ken Hill (six innings, one run, four hits) and homers by Anderson and Darin Erstad.

“Whether we win or lose, we don’t feel lucky,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We earn whatever we get. There’s absolutely no quit in this team, as evidenced by the way they came back after the ninth.”

The Angels took a 2-1 lead into the ninth, and Percival was overpowering, hitting 96 mph with a strikeout of Bret Boone and 98 mph with a strikeout of Ben Davis.

He jumped ahead of Rivera with two fastballs for strikes and tried to blow a third fastball by the undisciplined Rivera, who has 67 strikeouts in 218 at-bats and is prone to chasing bad breaking balls out of the strike zone.

Rivera caught up to the pitch on the outer half of the plate and lined it toward right, where Palmeiro, subbing for the injured Tim Salmon, raced back and attempted a leaping catch at the wall.

Had Palmeiro played it safe, backing off and fielding it off the wall, Rivera would have had a double at best. Instead, Palmeiro crashed hard into the wall and to the ground and seemed dazed for a moment, as the ball caromed toward center field.

Had Anderson sprinted toward right with the crack of the bat--a move that requires instincts and aggression and is expected of center fielders--Rivera would have been held to a triple. But Anderson didn’t move toward right until the ball hit the wall.

That meant a stunned and shaken Palmeiro had to run 20-25 yards to retrieve the ball, allowing Rivera time to circle the bases for San Diego’s first inside-the-park homer since Jack Howell on Aug. 16, 1991.

Amazingly, Anderson made the exact same mistake in the 10th inning Thursday night against the Dodgers, when he barely moved on Adrian Beltre’s triple that bounced off the wall in the right-field corner and back toward center.

“I didn’t get over there, I didn’t trail the play like I should have,” Anderson said. “It’s something that happened that I’ll learn from. I’ll take the blame; I don’t have a problem with that, but I’m not going to sit here and make excuses.

“I can’t say he wouldn’t have scored if I got over there. But if we had lost, I would have taken the weight on my shoulders. I made a mistake.”

If Palmeiro erred, it was on the side of aggression.

“Yeah, it seems like it would have been smart to play it off the wall, and I definitely thought about that, but do you think Percy would have appreciated that?” Palmeiro said. “It was the right play. You go as hard as you can and you never let up.”

There was only a tiny bit of second-guessing by Percival.

“If I throw a good curve in the dirt, I’m probably out of the inning,” Percival said. “ . . . But I threw a 98-mph fastball on the black, he stuck his bat out and got it.

“He wasn’t even close to the fastball he swung and missed at. It wasn’t like he fouled it off and was right on me. I didn’t want to throw the hook in that situation.”

With the velocity of his fastball, it’s no wonder Percival had so much confidence in it.

“All I can chalk it up to is the baseball gods are not in my favor now, because that’s as dominant as I’ve ever been, ever,” Percival said. “My last three or four outings, I could feel the strength in my arm. There’s life on my fastball, and I’m putting them where I want them.”

Percival said he would never question an effort like Palmeiro’s.

“He tried to get me out of the inning, the ball took a funky hop off the wall, and there was no one there to pick it up,” Percival said.

Shouldn’t Anderson have been there?

“I’m not going to get on anyone for not being where they should be,” Percival said. “He’s a professional, he knows [where he should have been]. You start pointing fingers at guys on your own team, the finger comes right back at you.”