Erstad Delivers the Clutch Hits for Angels Again

The Big Clutch? Hey, Shaq, how about letting Darin Erstad borrow one of your nicknames?

Erstad is far too modest to give himself a nickname, but he’s far too good to keep playing without one. And, for this night, the Big Clutch fits.

Home runs? How about two? Game-winning single? Coming right up.

Erstad tied his career high by driving in five runs, including the game-winner, to give the Angels a 10-9 victory over the San Francisco Giants Wednesday at Edison Field. In a series in which the Angels won two of three, Erstad had two hits in the first game, three in the second and three more in the third.

“The guy killed us,” San Francisco Manager Dusty Baker said. “Actually, he’s killing everybody. He’s hitting everything and everybody--left, right, into the air for home runs, into the ground for hits.”

Erstad is hitting .388, tops in the American League. He had at least two hits in each of the six games of the homestand. His next home run will be his 13th, as many as he hit all last season.

Erstad says he can’t explain his resurgent power. He can, however, joke about it.

Said Erstad, laughing: “The wind’s blowing out to right-center. The ball is juiced. I’ve got a corked bat.”

He hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning and another in the sixth, giving the Angels a 9-4 lead. After the Giants tied the score at 9, Erstad singled home Bengie Molina with the winning run in the eighth.

And, for the save, the Angels presented Shigetoshi Hasegawa. With closer Troy Percival unavailable after working the previous three games, Hasegawa did a pretty terrific Percival imitation.

After the Angels blew a 9-4 lead, Hasegawa stopped the bleeding, preserving a 9-9 tie by getting Ellis Burks to hit into a double play to end the eighth.

Hasegawa returned for the ninth, working a 1-2-3 inning and striking out Felipe Crespo for the final out. In true Percival style, Hasegawa thrust his fist into the air to celebrate the game-ending strikeout.

“I’ve never done that,” Hasegawa said. “But I knew it was a big game.”

Barry Bonds, who hit the game-winning home run Monday and a 493-foot home run Tuesday, was relatively harmless Wednesday. He got one hit, a single. And, when he charged Erstad’s single in the hope of throwing Molina out at home, he overran the ball.

Erstad’s two home runs, and another by Troy Glaus, boosted the Angels’ season total to 91, second in the league to the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Angels, in a pitiful offensive performance last season, hit 158 home runs. They might match that by the All-Star break.

The franchise record is 192, set in 1996. They might match that by Labor Day.

Kent Bottenfield failed to reach the seventh inning for the fourth consecutive start. He could have, certainly, given the support. He still won. He simply threw too many pitches, again.

Bottenfield thrives when he pitches to the corners and struggles when he does not. He struggled Wednesday, requiring 103 pitches--46 balls--to complete six innings.

He did fine over the first two innings, retiring the first six hitters. But the 4-0 lead the Angels handed him after one inning was gone in the third. Rich Aurilia drove in two runs with a home run, Jeff Kent one with a sacrifice fly and J.T. Snow another with a single.

Bottenfield battled through three more innings without giving up another run but without regaining his sharpness.

San Francisco starter Russ Ortiz has won just once in his last eight starts since April 21. The Giants had to score 16 runs to win that game, since Ortiz gave up 10. In this new era, you wouldn’t want to bet against that happening again, but it didn’t happen Wednesday.