Sacrifices Not in Scioscia’s Plan

The chair in Mike Scioscia’s office turned into a hot seat Saturday afternoon, with the first-year Angel manager getting skewered, basted and grilled.

The Angels had just lost to the Seattle Mariners, 1-0, when former Angel Mark McLemore singled home pinch-runner Charles Gipson in the bottom of the ninth inning before 43,427 in Safeco Field, and Scioscia’s postgame media gathering sounded more like an inquisition.

With runners on first and second and none out in the top of the ninth, Scioscia had No. 5 batter Garret Anderson, who is batting only .230 but has six home runs and 21 runs batted in, swing away instead of bunt.

Anderson, who is not a very good bunter but has contributed 11 sacrifice bunts in his six-year career, hit into a double play, essentially killing the rally against Mariner closer Kazuhiro Sasaki.

“A bunt never even entered my mind,” Scioscia said. “I think Garret Anderson is a guy we want up there with a chance to win the game. I’m looking for a base hit. . . . I feel we’re taking him out of his comfort level by asking him to bunt. That’s not his role.”

What about sending reserve outfielder Orlando Palmeiro to bunt in Anderson’s place? Was that considered?

“Garret is hitting fifth, we look for him to drive in runs for us, and I have to stick with my guy,” Scioscia said. “I feel in that situation, he’ll come through more times than not. I have a lot more confidence in Garret getting his hacks.”

Scioscia said he was not influenced by Darin Erstad’s failure to sacrifice in the eighth inning. Benji Gil had opened with a walk, but Erstad fouled off two bunt attempts before grounding into a 6-4-3 double play.

Then Mo Vaughn and Tim Salmon opened the ninth with walks off Sasaki. Anderson was facing a pitcher he had never faced before, a Japanese right-hander with an exceptional forkball. He swung at the first pitch, fouling it off, and swung at the second pitch, grounding into the double play. Sasaki then caught Troy Glaus looking at a 2-2 breaking ball to end the inning.

“I didn’t want to take the bat out of Garret’s hands,” Scioscia said. “We already had the runner in scoring position. In my mind, I thought the table was already set. But that’s the beauty of this game; everyone has their opinion.”

Seattle Manager Lou Piniella never has had a high opinion of the bunt--he’d prefer his players to hit three-run home runs with runners on first and second and no outs--but he employed a touch of Little Ball in the winning rally.

David Bell opened the bottom of the ninth with a single off reliever Mike Holtz, who escaped a two-out, bases-loaded jam in the eighth by getting Jay Buhner and remained in the game in the ninth because workhorse relievers Troy Percival, Mark Petkovsek and Shigetoshi Hasegawa needed rest.

Seattle catcher Dan Wilson then executed a perfect sacrifice, bunting Gipson, who ran for Bell, to second, and Gipson scored on McLemore’s clean single to right-center on a 2-2 Holtz fastball.

“Those guys got ‘em on, got ‘em over and got ‘em in in the ninth inning,” Scioscia said. “You’ve got to give ‘em credit.”

Wasted was an outstanding effort by reliever-turned-starter Kent Mercker, who gave up three hits and struck out five in five scoreless innings, and 2 2/3 scoreless innings by Angel reliever Al Levine, who gave up two hits.

Mercker, who replaced Jason Dickson (strained left hip flexor) in the rotation, hadn’t pitched since April 28, but was much sharper Saturday than he was in any of his 10 relief appearances this season.

Mixing his fastball and slider with an excellent changeup, Mercker ran into trouble only once, when Alex Rodriguez singled with one out in the fourth and took third on Edgar Martinez’s broken-bat single to right.

But Mercker struck out John Olerud, the league’s No. 3 hitter with a .378 average entering the weekend, on a beautiful full-count changeup and got Buhner on an inning-ending fielder’s choice.

Mercker’s counterpart, Mariner right-hander Gil Meche, was even more impressive, giving up only two hits and striking out five in seven innings.

“You couldn’t pitch any better than Mercker did,” Scioscia said. “Unfortunately, their guy did.”