Hill Making Climb Back for the Angels

The Angels don’t just need a physically sound Ken Hill to contend for the American League West championship this season.

They need a dominant Ken Hill, a Ken-Hill-circa-1997 who almost single-handedly kept the Angels in the division race after Chuck Finley’s season-ending wrist injury by going 3-1 with a 1.37 earned-run average in his last six starts that season.

For all the pleasant surprises the young pitchers have provided, the Angels lack a true rotation hammer, a starter who gives teammates a feeling they’ll win every time he takes the mound. Hill showed--at least for one night Wednesday--that he may have tools for that role.

Making his first start since suffering a strained rib-cage muscle May 9, Hill gave up one run on four hits in six crisp innings, leading the Angels to a 3-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners before 32,581 in Safeco Field.

Shortstop Benji Gil had three hits and a run batted in, reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa struck out John Olerud and Jay Buhner to end the eighth after giving up a home run to Alex Rodriguez, and closer Troy Percival threw a scoreless ninth for his 19th save, as the Angels snapped Seattle’s seven-game win streak and pulled to within 5 1/2 games of first-place Oakland.

Hill, whose Angel career has been marked mostly by injury and disappointment, walked three and struck out only two, but he was in command throughout, keeping his fastballs, sliders and split-fingered fastballs down in the strike zone.

He reached 89 mph on the Safeco Field speed gun in the first, but Hill found such a good rhythm that by the sixth, he was at 94 mph with a pitch to Rodriguez and 95 mph with a pitch to Edgar Martinez.

The Angels, fresh off a pregame team meeting in which Manager Mike Scioscia stressed the need to step up their performance to keep up with the fast-rising A’s and Mariners, seemed inspired in the first inning, scoring two runs with some hustle and a clutch hit.

Gil singled with one out, and Mo Vaughn and Tim Salmon each walked to load the bases. Garret Anderson grounded sharply to the hole at second, a potential double-play ball, but he beat out an RBI fielder’s choice by lunging for the first base ahead of shortstop Rodriguez’s relay from second.

Troy Glaus then singled to center for a 2-0 lead off Mariner starter Jamie Moyer, a cushion the Angels maintained until the bottom of the fourth.

That’s when Martinez, who entered with a .440 lifetime average (11 for 25) against Hill, hit a towering bases-empty homer to center, giving him 22 home runs and 78 RBIs on the season.

The Angels had an excellent chance to pad the lead in the fifth when Gil tripled with one out, Vaughn was hit by a pitch and Salmon walked to load the bases.

Seattle center fielder Mike Cameron actually robbed Gil of a home run, leaping above the wall and nearly making a spectacular catch, only to have the ball carom off the tip of his glove and back to the outfield grass. Cameron didn’t make the catch, but he saved a run.

Moyer got ahead of Anderson, 0-2, and Anderson stayed alive by fouling off five two-strike pitches, many of them slow breaking balls. Mariner catcher Joe Oliver went to the mound for a quick conference, and Moyer whiffed Anderson with a 75-mph straight changeup that was so slow it seemed Anderson could have swung at the pitch twice.

Moyer stayed with the soft-serve, striking out Glaus with a 74-mph breaking ball to end the inning and extending Glaus’ Safeco Field misery. In five games this season in Seattle, Glaus has one single in 15 at-bats and has struck out 12 times.

The Angels added a run in the seventh when Erstad singled off reliever Brett Tomko, and Gil, with David Bell expecting a bunt and playing shallow at third, whistled a double past Bell into the left-field corner, scoring Erstad for a 3-1 lead.

Similar to the fifth, however, the Angels squandered another opportunity. Vaughn followed Gil’s hit with a routine fly to centerthat Cameron lost in the twilight and let drop for a single, moving Gil to third.

But Salmon struck out swinging, and Anderson bounced into a 1-6-3 double play to end the inning.