Stage Is Left to Anderson

A global sport, indeed. On an evening of historic significance to Japanese baseball fans, the game-winning hit was delivered by a guy who grew up in the San Fernando Valley.

That man on the news highlights across Japan this morning? He’s Garret Anderson, who stung Kazuhiro Sasaki for the ninth-inning home run that lifted the Angels to a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners Friday.

A terrific game in any country, to be sure, but especially exhilarating to the thousands of Japanese tourists and Japanese Americans who enlivened the Edison Field crowd of 31,087. With Japanese flags waving and flash bulbs blinking, the Japanese players took center stage until the very last swing of the night.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Ichiro Suzuki preserved the Mariners’ lead with a brilliant outfield catch. In the top of the ninth inning, Suzuki singled off the Angels’ Shigetoshi Hasegawa, the first time in major league history that a Japanese-born pitcher faced a Japanese-born hitter.

And, in the bottom of the ninth, Anderson’s home run left Sasaki as the losing pitcher and Hasegawa as the winning pitcher.

“I saw a couple of cameras flashing when Ichiro was batting,” Hasegawa said. “It was very special to face Ichiro. But we won, we scored two runs in the ninth inning, and that was very special too.”

Perhaps the Angels can introduce the Japanese to the concept of the rally monkey. The Angels got two runs on one swing in the third inning--Adam Kennedy homered in his first at-bat of the season--but had not advanced another runner past second base when the Mariners called on Sasaki, Japan’s all-time save leader and the American League rookie of the year last season.

With the Mariners leading, 3-2, Sasaki got two strikes on Troy Glaus, but Glaus then singled. Anderson followed with his first home run of the season.

“I always look for a fastball in that situation,” Anderson said. “He left a fastball out over the plate.”

The Angels are 6-4, coming from behind in five of their six victories. The Angels, with a nod to their rally monkey, came from behind to win 37 games last season.

“It means a lot for a team to be able to come back and win at any point in the game,” Anderson said.

Suzuki, billed as the best player in Japan and imported this year by the Mariners, made his first appearance at Edison Field Friday. He struck out in the first inning, was called out when a bunted ball hit him out of the batter’s box in the fifth and did not get the ball out of the infield in his first four at-bats.

But superstars are not measured by batting averages alone. In the eighth inning, he leaped high in right field to intercept what appeared to be a tying double by Tim Salmon.

“He’s a tremendously gifted player,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said of Suzuki. “This guy can beat you in a lot of ways. He nearly beat us with his glove tonight.”

Strategy does not work without execution, as the Angels found out to their distress and the Mariners to their delight.

In the fifth inning, with the score tied, 2-2, the Mariners had a runner on second base with two out. With the left-handed Scott Schoeneweis pitching, the strategy was orthodox--walk right-handed Edgar Martinez to pitch to left-handed John Olerud.

Olerud singled home the run, and the Mariners led, 3-2.

In the bottom of the inning, the Angels had a runner on second base with two out. With the right-handed Brett Tomko pitching, the strategy was obvious if not orthodox--walk left-handed Darin Erstad, one of baseball’s best hitters, to pitch to left-handed Wally Joyner.

Joyner flied out, and the Mariners still led, 3-2.

Schoeneweis was shaky at first. Five of the first nine Seattle batters reached base, with the Mariners taking a 2-0 lead on an RBI double by Martinez in the first inning and an RBI single by Dan Wilson in the second.

When Carlos Guillen, the No. 9 batter, followed Wilson with a single and Suzuki followed Guillen with a wicked line-drive out, Angel pitching coach Bud Black hustled to the mound to settle Schoeneweis.

And settled he became, limiting the Mariners to one run and four hits over his final six innings.