Angels Thrown for a Loss

As John Wetteland began his warmups before the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday night, a replay of Scott Spiezio’s game-winning home run off the Texas closer on May 14 was shown on the Edison Field video board, giving a rise to Angel fans.

Spiezio nearly provided another dramatic finish for future video presentations, but Ranger right fielder Scarborough Green, with an assist from home plate umpire Doug Eddings, pulled the plug on that Angel production, throwing out Spiezio on a bang-bang play at the plate to preserve Texas’ 3-2 victory before a crowd of 20,083.

Spiezio opened the ninth with an infield single off Wetteland and took second on Orlando Palmeiro’s groundout. Darin Erstad lined out softly to second, but Kevin Stocker ripped a single to right.

Green, who replaced Chad Curtis to start the bottom of the ninth, charged and fired a throw that reached catcher Ivan Rodriguez on the fly but was a little high and up the first base line.

Rodriguez made the catch and applied the tag to Spiezio’s knee, and Eddings called Spiezio out, but replays showed that Spiezio’s right foot actually slid across the plate just before Rodriguez’s tag.

Wetteland, who gave up a game-winning homer to San Francisco’s Armando Rios in the bottom of the ninth Tuesday night, recorded his 24th save, enabling Kenny Rogers (10-7) to gain the victory.

Kent Bottenfield gave Angel Manager Mike Scioscia just about everything he could ask for--a seven-inning quality start (three runs, eight hits, seven innings) that allowed Scioscia to give overworked relievers Troy Percival, Shigetoshi Hasegawa and Mark Petkovsek the night off and gave the Angels a chance to win.

But that wasn’t enough to beat Rogers, who hadn’t won a decision over the Angels since Sept. 25, 1998, when he was pitching for Oakland, but has always been a puzzle the Angels seldom know how to solve.

Relying on his well-placed if not rapidly moving fastballs and a variety of sliders that he throws from different arm angles and at varying speeds, Rogers entered Tuesday with a career 11-7 record and 3.57 earned-run average in 41 games against the Angels, including the perfect game he threw against them in Arlington, Texas, on July 28, 1994.

The Angels pulled to within 3-2 when they tagged Rogers for a run on three hits in the seventh, and they had Rogers on the ropes all inning, but the Ranger defense and bullpen helped preserve the lead.

After Garret Anderson led off with an infield single, third baseman Mike Lamb dived toward the line to stop Bengie Molina’s grounder and threw to first, turning a potential double into an out.

Spiezio grounded a two-out RBI single to left, and Edgard Clemente doubled into the left-field corner. Spiezio appeared to have a chance to score from first, but Texas left fielder Rusty Greer closed quickly, stopping the ball before it hit the wall, and that forced Spiezio to hold at third.

Ranger Manager Johnny Oates summoned left-hander Doug Davis, who intentionally walked Erstad to load the bases and retired Stocker on a slow roller to second to snuff out the rally.

After failing to score despite leadoff singles by Ivan Rodriguez and David Segui in the second, the Rangers nicked Bottenfield for a run in the fourth.

Rodriguez reached on a fielder’s choice, took second on Segui’s liner to the mound, which Bottenfield knocked down, enabling him to throw out Segui at first, and Dave Martinez singled to center to drive in Rodriguez.

The Angels managed only one single off Rogers through four innings but tied the score in the fifth when Molina ripped a 2-and-2 slider over the wall in left for his 12th homer of the season.

Benji Gil followed with a single to left and took third on Spiezio’s soft single to right-center. Rogers then went from crafty to nasty, freezing Clemente with a back-door slider for strike three and striking out Erstad with a sweeping slider on a full-count pitch to end the inning.

In the sixth, Rodriguez lined a leadoff double into the left-field corner. Segui moved him to third with a grounder to first, and Martinez singled to right-center for a 2-1 lead.

Texas made it 3-1 when Gabe Kapler sent Bottenfield’s first pitch of the seventh into the right-center field seats for his fifth homer.

*

THROWBACK OF SORTS

Seth Etherton is contemplating a return to his palmball--his out pitch during college days at USC. Page 6

ROCKET GAINS ALTITUDE

Roger Clemens chalked up win No. 255 to move into 35th place on the all-time victory list. Page 6