Ortiz Again Provides Angels With a Steely Performance

In an American League West race that looks for all the world like the first to pull the rip cord wins, the Angels inched a few more hours into a season that wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with them.

Pitching from that very same perspective, 24-year-old Ramon Ortiz (5-5) showed pennant-race poise. He gave up three hits and one run in 7 2/3 innings, gleefully waved his cap as he crossed the foul line with two out in the eighth inning, and the Angels defeated the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1, before 30,480 Friday night at Edison Field.

The Angels won for the second time in three games while scoring two or fewer runs. Before Wednesday’s 1-0 win in Detroit, they had won only once when scoring one or two runs in a game. That came on Aug. 8, when Ortiz beat Pedro Martinez and the Boston Red Sox, 2-1.

Darin Erstad drove in a second-inning run with a single and Benji Gil broke a 1-1 tie with a sixth-inning home run against Baltimore starter Pat Rapp (7-11). Left-handed reliever Mike Holtz got a key out in the eighth, when he inherited a 2-and-1 count and a runner at second base from Ortiz and got Brady Anderson to pop to second base. And closer Troy Percival pitched the ninth for his 27th save.

Meanwhile, the top of the West was losing home games to inferior opponents, Seattle to Minnesota and Oakland to Tampa Bay. The Angels are five games out of first, three out of second, and for one night had Ortiz to thank.

“Thanks to God, I don’t feel any pressure,” Ortiz said through coach Bobby Ramos. “I go out there and pitch like it’s a normal game. The only thing I have on my mind is helping the team to win.”

Ortiz said his command and velocity were “very close” to what he possessed the night he beat Martinez, his idol.

It allowed him to escape the only real trouble the Orioles gave him. His first six pitches of the fourth inning were balls. He walked Anderson on four pitches and Jerry Hairston on six, bringing up the middle of the Oriole order with runners at first and second.

“I think if they get those guys over to second and third, it’s a different ballgame,” catcher Bengie Molina said. “We made the good pitches.”

Ortiz got Delino DeShields to ground into a third-to-first double play on a two-strike fastball and Cal Ripken to ground to third on the very next pitch.

“I think we saw the way Ramon Ortiz can pitch,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Even though his command left him for a small time, he got back on the horse and made some terrific pitches. That’s an indication of how Ramon needs to keep his composure and make pitches.”

When the final out was made, Ortiz jogged from the third base dugout, a grin across his face. He slapped hands with Mo Vaughn, turned and hugged pitching coach Bud Black. He is again the darling of an organization that needed him to mature as the race carried the team along, as the hitters slugged valiantly through inadequate pitching.

“I really feel happy I’m part of a contender,” Ortiz said, “and fighting for a playoff spot.”

Ortiz pitched easily into the eighth inning, having given up only Chris Richard’s solo home run three innings earlier. After two were out in the eighth, No. 9 batter Eugene Kingsale walked on four pitches and then stole second base. When Ortiz overthrew a 1-and-1 fastball to Anderson, Scioscia beckoned Holtz.

“I think he could smell the end of the ballgame and tried to close it out being overaggressive,” Scioscia said.

Holtz, the curveball specialist, threw a ball, then a strike, then jammed Anderson. The Orioles had only three at-bats with a runner in scoring position and were hitless.

The Angels scored in the second inning against Rapp, whose win last Saturday in Cleveland was his first since the end of July and his second since the end of May.

With one out in the second, Molina singled sharply to center field. Fellow rookie Adam Kennedy followed with a two-strike single to center field, Molina advancing to third base. With two out, Darin Erstad grounded an 0-and-2 changeup into center field to drive in Molina.

The Orioles tied the score in the fifth inning on Richard’s home run to center field, and the Angels answered in the sixth, when No. 9-hitter Gil rode a middle-away fastball into the right-center field bleachers, his sixth home run.