Percival Doesn’t Slam the Door, but He Shuts It

Angel closer Troy Percival spent the 1995 season serving as an apprentice to Lee Smith, baseball’s all-time saves leader who had a knack for making his manager and teammates squirm before finishing off victories. Percival may have learned too well from the master.

Taking a page out of the Lee Smith Closers Handbook, Percival gave up a run in the bottom of the ninth, and the Texas Rangers had runners on first and second with two outs when Percival threw what may have been his worst pitch of the inning to Ruben Sierra.

But Sierra missed it, sending a lazy fly ball to right field that Tim Salmon caught to end the game in a 4-3 Angel victory before 31,789 Wednesday night at the Ballpark in Arlington.

“I hung that last curve,” Percival said after his 17th save. “It was a good pitch because it resulted in an out, but I definitely got away with a bad one there.”

Angel starter Ramon Ortiz didn’t have his best stuff either, but he won, limiting the Rangers to two runs and nine hits in seven innings, walking two and striking out none. Ortiz (5-5) is 3-0 with a 2.53 earned-run average in three starts against Texas this season.

Two Angels who have been frustrated by their lack of playing time keyed a 13-hit attack, as shortstop Benji Gil took advantage of a rare start with three hits and a run, and Scott Spiezio had two hits, including a double that tied the score in the fourth.

That helped make a loser of Angel nemesis Kenny Rogers, whose career record against the Angels fell to 13-8.

The Angels snapped a 2-2 tie in the fifth when Adam Kennedy doubled and later scored on Troy Glaus’ double-play grounder. They made it 4-2 in the seventh when Gil tripled and scored on David Eckstein’s single. After Al Levine’s scoreless eighth, they took a two-run cushion into the ninth.

Percival’s problems started with a strikeout. Really. Catcher Shawn Wooten was expecting an inside fastball to Michael Young, Percival threw hard outside, and neither Young nor Wooten could catch up to it.

Young swung and missed for strike three, but the ball went to the backstop, allowing Young to take first. A groundout and a passed ball sent Young to third, and Percival got Ivan Rodriguez to ground to third.

Alex Rodriguez beat out a dribbler to short for an run-scoring single, and Percival pitched around Rafael Palmeiro, walking him to set up his final showdown with Sierra. Percival held his breath when his final pitch left his hand but was able to exhale when Sierra popped it up.

“You live by the sword, you die by it,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “A short man knows that saves and blown saves are part of the package. If it doesn’t happen one night, he’s getting the ball the next night. Our confidence never wavers in him.”

Scioscia can’t say the same about Ortiz, the talented but temperamental right-hander whose two-year big league career has been marked by inconsistency and several demotions to the minor leagues.

But Ortiz took a big step forward Wednesday night, relying more on his head than his arm. He did not feel strong early, so he concentrated on hitting corners and keeping the ball down.

Although he gave up two runs in the second on Mike Lamb’s run-scoring single and Frank Catalanotto’s bloop double that drove in a run, Ortiz shut down the Rangers through the seventh without striking out a batter.

“This is all a part of his maturity as a pitcher,” Scioscia said of Ortiz. “At times he’s answered the challenge, at times he hasn’t. You’re not going to have your ‘A’ stuff and command every night, but he showed he could pitch against a tough lineup and that’s huge.”

The Angels tied the score, 2-2, in the fourth when Darin Erstad was hit by a pitch, Glaus singled, Wooten hit a two-out, run-scoring infield single and Spiezio doubled to right for a run.

Ortiz allowed only one more runner to reach second. He needed 84 pitches to get through seven innings; 53 were strikes.

“You don’t have to strike people out to be successful,” Ortiz said. “Last year, Pedro Martinez told me he doesn’t like to strike guys out a lot. He likes to get ground balls. . . . Any pitcher who throws strikes has a chance to win a lot of games.”