Clemente’s Throw Saves Game for Angels

It was a throw his late uncle, hall of famer Roberto Clemente, would have been proud of and one that left Angel Manager Mike Scioscia rubbing his eyes, wondering if he’d witnessed the second coming of the former Pittsburgh Pirate star with the rifle arm.

Edgard Clemente gunned down the potential winning run at the plate with a perfect throw from deep right field to preserve a tie in the ninth inning Wednesday night, and Troy Glaus’ home run in the 10th lifted the Angels to a pulsating 6-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins before 8,633 in the Metrodome.

Trailing, 5-3, with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth, Minnesota second baseman Jay Canizaro lined a double over Clemente’s head off Troy Percival, the first runs--though unearned--the Twins have scored against the Angel closer in 26 1/3 career innings.

Corey Koskie tried to score the winning run from first, but Clemente fielded the carom off the wall and, from about 325 feet away, fired a two-hop throw all the way to catcher Bengie Molina, who applied the tag on Koskie.

Asked if the throw reminded him of anyone in particular, Scioscia said, “Oh my God, take your pick, the other Clemente or Raul Mondesi. I can’t believe from where he threw that ball how accurate it was and how much he threw the guy out by. That throw was on plumb line. It was unbelievable.”

The play gave Glaus a chance to hit his 15th homer of the season and helped ensure the Angels’ 18-hit effort--which included the third five-hit game of Mo Vaughn’s career, Molina’s career-high four hits, and Jarrod Washburn’s seven-inning, three-run, five-hit performance--were not wasted.

“He’s got a cannon man, a bazooka, and he’s very accurate,” Vaughn said of Clemente, a reserve who was in right field Wednesday because the Twins started left-hander Mark Redman. “He gave us a chance to come back.”

So did Washburn, who somehow turned a horrendous start into the Angels’ fifth quality start (six innings or more, three earned runs or less) in 24 games. Five batters into the first inning, the Twins had scored three runs and had two on with no outs, as Matt Lawton’s two-run double and Butch Huskey’s run-scoring single gave Minnesota a 3-1 lead.

Then, it was as if Washburn morphed into Randy Johnson. He struck out Brian Buchanan and Matthew LeCroy looking. He struck out Marcus Jensen swinging. The left-hander then threw six consecutive scoreless innings, giving up two hits before yielding to Shigetoshi Hasegawa to start the eighth.

“I think I was too excited pitching in front of all the people from back home,” said Washburn, who grew up in nearby Wisconsin. “I was overthrowing a bit and was out of control.”

Vaughn doubled and scored on Tim Salmon’s single in the first, Adam Kennedy singled in a run in the fifth, and Garret Anderson tied the score, 3-3, with a homer in the sixth. Vaughn’s two-out RBI single snapped the tie in the seventh, and his RBI single in the ninth made it 5-3.

Angel shortstop Benji Gil’s second error of the game and Percival’s two walks in the ninth aided the Twins’ rally, and though Al Levine recorded his first big league save with a scoreless 10th, Clemente was the game- saver.

“If that throw is not perfect, we lose the game,” said Clemente, who was acquired from Colorado in a spring-training trade. “A lot of people who see me throw tell me I remind them of Roberto. He had a great arm. It’s good that I have a good arm too.”