Angels Have Pwotent Cure for Sickness

Manager Mike Scioscia broke the glass in an emergency and pulled out long reliever Lou Pote, who extinguished a potent New York Yankee lineup for the better part of five innings Monday to lead the Angels to a 3-1 victory over the defending World Series champions before 40,232 in Yankee Stadium.

Pote, making a spot start for ailing left-hander Scott Schoeneweis, overcame a brutally hot and humid 98-degree afternoon to limit the Yankees to one run and four hits, and the Angels completed a seven-game trip through Boston and New York with a 5-2 record and won for the 20th time in 29 games.

Bullpen mates Ben Weber (two scoreless innings), Shigetoshi Hasegawa (scoreless eighth) and Troy Percival (scoreless ninth for his 30th save) finished off the Yankees, but not before sparks, tempers--and a baseball bat--flew in the bottom of the ninth.

With a runner on second and two out, Percival threw a 1-and-2 fastball to left-handed-hitting Jorge Posada that replays showed was at least six inches off the plate.

Home plate umpire Justin Klemm hesitated before calling strike three, and Posada erupted. Klemm walked toward the first base dugout, with Posada about 15 feet behind him, screaming.

Posada then hurled his bat in Klemm’s general direction, not close enough to hit the umpire but probably close enough to warrant an investigation by Frank Robinson, baseball’s czar of discipline.

“You guys saw it better than me--I don’t have to talk about it,” Posada said of the strike. “That’s one thing you can’t do anything about.”

What did the Yankee catcher say to the umpire?

“I said the game is not over,” Posada said. “It’s a shame, it really is.”

Percival, who retired Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams to start the ninth before allowing a single to Tino Martinez, saw several replays of the pitch.

“From one angle it looked like it caught part of the plate, from another it looked off the plate,” he said. “I don’t complain when pitches aren’t called my way. I’m not going to complain now.”

There were no complaints about Pote, who discovered he would make his second big league start when he got to Yankee Stadium three hours before the game. A nasty stomach ailment sidelined Schoeneweis, but the understudy drew rave reviews from Scioscia and his teammates.

Pote, a right-hander who pitched only three times in the previous 28 days, gave up David Justice’s solo homer in the fifth but nothing else, needing only 60 pitches to complete five innings, the longest outing of his career.

He went right at the heart of a formidable lineup that includes switch-hitter Williams and left-handers Martinez, Posada, Paul O’Neill and Justice.

“I wasn’t intimidated at all,” Pote said. “If you start looking at the stadium and get caught up in it, the other team sees that and feeds off it. I wasn’t fazed. I know I belong here and can start.”

Pote played with fire, falling behind many Yankees, but got burned only once. Three of his outs came on 2-and-0 pitches.

“The 2-and-0 fastball away was working well,” Pote said. “They should have put 2-and-0 up on the scoreboard right away, to get it over with. I’d fall behind, make a real good 2-and-0 pitch and make them put the ball in play.”

The Angels scored once in the second on Bengie Molina’s sacrifice fly and twice in the fifth on Darin Erstad’s sacrifice fly and Garret Anderson’s two-out RBI single.

David Eckstein had three hits, Tim Salmon and Jose Nieves had two hits each, and Nieves, making a rare start, made two outstanding plays at second.

But the story Monday, as it has been for most of this season, was pitching. Angel starters have not given up more than five earned runs in 19 consecutive games, posting an earned-run average of 2.98. The bullpen ERA of 2.99 is the best in baseball.

“We did it with pitching this trip, which is a great sign,” Percival said. “When you get good pitching this time of year, it tends to show you’re more of a contender than if you just outslug teams. Good hitting goes in slumps. Good pitching usually doesn’t. . . .

“This is a gratifying way to end this trip. Beating teams like Boston and New York says we’re a quality team and should contend for the wild card.”

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AL WILD CARD

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W L GB Boston 64 47 - Cleveland 62 49 2 Oakland 62 50 21/2 Angels 58 54 61/2

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