Angels Tackled by Call

Angel hitting coach Mickey Hatcher probably hadn’t been tackled this hard--or by anyone this large--since he played wide receiver for the Oklahoma University football team in 1976-77.

But the fact that Hatcher was wrestled to the ground by a guy wearing the same uniform, 6-foot-1, 268-pound Angel first baseman Mo Vaughn, speaks to the depths of the frustration the Angels experienced in a 7-4 loss to the Oakland Athletics before 15,300 at Edison Field on Wednesday night.

Hatcher fumed over a controversial call that may have cost the Angels two runs in the fourth inning, runs the Angels believed would have changed the complexion of the game.

Had they scored in the fourth, perhaps their two-run rally in the eighth would have given them a two-run lead instead of a 3-3 tie.

Then closer Troy Percival, and not set-up man Mark Petkovsek, would have pitched the ninth inning, when the A’s snapped the tie with four runs by Ben Grieve’s RBI single, Jeremy Giambi’s two-run single and Eric Chavez’s RBI single.

The Angels trailed 3-1 when Garret Anderson led off the fourth with a single. Troy Glaus followed with his second double of the game, a liner that one-hopped the short left-field wall and bounced high into the air before Grieve, the A’s left fielder, was able to retrieve it.

Anderson scored easily from first, but second-base umpire Al Clark ruled that the ball nicked a fan in the first row--though replays didn’t seem agree--and gave Glaus a ground-rule double, sending Anderson back to third.

After a lengthy argument between Angel Manager Mike Scioscia and Clark, Edgard Clemente grounded to third and reached on a fielder’s choice as Anderson was thrown out in a rundown between third and home. Matt Walbeck singled sharply to right to load the bases.

But Trent Durrington, starting because Scioscia wanted to give second baseman Adam Kennedy his first night off this season, bounced into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

Hatcher continued to protest the call on Glaus’ double after the inning and was ejected. He then charged the field and headed for Clark, only to be restrained by Vaughn’s bear hug and eventually tackled by the Angel first baseman.

Clark’s call conceivably could have cost the Angels two runs, because Anderson would have scored, Glaus would have taken third on Walbeck’s hit and possibly scored on Durrington’s ground ball, which would have come with a runner on third and no one on first.

The A’s, behind the superb pitching of left-hander Mark Mulder (two runs, six hits in 7 2/3 innings), maintained that 3-1 lead until the eighth, when Darin Erstad opened with a single off Mulder. Grieve then leaped at the wall to rob Benji Gil of a two-run home run, and Vaughn struck out looking.

Oakland Manager Art Howe summoned right-hander T.J. Mathews to face Angel cleanup batter Tim Salmon, who lined a double into the left-field corner. Erstad, running with the full-count pitch, scored easily, and Salmon took third when the ball caromed past Grieve.

Howe replaced Mathews with closer Jason Isringhausen, whose first pitch was ripped to left-center by Anderson for an RBI double and a 3-3 tie. That gave the A’s bullpen their fourth blown save in the past eight games. Isringhausen recovered to strike out Glaus, to end the inning.

Erstad added another RBI in the bottom of the ninth when he singled home Orlando Palmeiro, who had walked and took second on a groundout. Isringhausen struck out pinch-hitter Scott Spiezio to end the game and provide some dignity to an A’s bullpen that has been bombed for 28 earned runs on 49 hits in 24 1/3 innings of the last eight games.