Rangers Pile It On in the 11th

Baseball’s best bullpen--at least statistically--was on full display Tuesday night, as Angel relievers Mike Holtz, Ben Weber, Al Levine and Troy Percival combined to shut out the Texas Rangers for five innings.

But few bullpens, even one with a major league-leading 3.05 earned run average, can go five deep without a dropoff in quality, and that shortfall enabled the Rangers to outlast the Angels for an 8-1, 11-inning victory before 17,250 at Edison Field.

Unable to put much of a dent in starter Matt Wise or even a scratch in the front end of the Angel bullpen, the Rangers pounded middle reliever Mark Lukasiewicz for seven runs on six hits in the decisive 11th, sending 12 batters to the plate.

“There’s only so much you can ask these guys to do--they were stretched to the limit,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said of his relief corps. “It stings a little to get such a great effort for nine or 10 innings. We had several opportunities to get it done, and we didn’t.”

Their best opportunity came in the sixth, when Garret Anderson led off with a double to right and took third on Tim Salmon’s fly ball to deep left. With the score tied, 1-1, and a 1-1 count on Orlando Palmeiro, Scioscia called for a suicide squeeze.

Ranger starter Rick Helling pitched out--at least, he appeared to pitch out--Palmeiro had no chance to bunt, and Anderson was an easy out after a brief rundown between third and home. Palmeiro popped to short to end the inning.

Though Helling said afterward it “wasn’t a pitchout,” his fastball was so high and outside that Palmeiro couldn’t even offer at it. It was the second time in four attempts the Angels have failed to execute a suicide squeeze this season. The first failed attempt also came when the opponent pitched out with Palmeiro at the plate.

Could Scioscia have been a little too predictable?

“I’m anything but predictable,” he said. “We’re aggressive, we go on percentages, and when you’re aggressive, you’re going to get burned sometimes. You take the downside with the upside, and I feel the upside outweighs the downside exponentially. . . .

“That’s a big play. They guessed right. That’s baseball. But it’s not going to curtail our aggressiveness, I can tell you that.”

The score remained 1-1 until the 11th, an inning that began with Lukasiewicz striking out Alex Rodriguez. But Rafael Palmeiro singled, and Ruben Sierra doubled. An intentional walk to Gabe Kapler loaded the bases, and pinch-hitter Andres Galarraga rolled an RBI single to left.

Ricky Ledee singled in another run, Mike Young doubled to left for two runs, and Frank Catalanotto’s two-run single to left made it 7-1 before Scioscia replaced Lukasiewicz with right-hander Lou Pote.

Ivan Rodriguez reached on third baseman Troy Glaus’ error, and Alex Rodriguez capped the rally with a sacrifice fly to center.

“Nobody likes to have an outing like that,” Lukasiewicz said. “I thought I made some good pitches, but everything they hit found a hole.”

After one inning, the Angels and Rangers were on pace to match Monday night’s 18-run, 27-hit slugfest. Both teams scored a run on two hits in the first, and both offenses seemed ready to drop the gloves and go toe to toe again.

Ten innings later, neither the Angels nor Rangers had landed a significant punch. Helling followed the first with eight shutout innings, and Wise and four relievers blanked the Rangers through the 10th.

Wise allowed only one run on two hits through five innings but found himself in a heap of trouble in the sixth when he walked Ivan Rodriguez to open the inning and Alex Rodriguez singled Ivan to third.

With Rafael Palmeiro, who hits left-handed, coming up, Scioscia opted for the quick hook, pulling Wise in favor of Holtz, who had given up only two hits in 6 1/3 scoreless innings of his previous 11 appearances.

Holtz struck out Palmeiro with a slow curve and retired Sierra on a pop to shortstop before yielding to Weber, who struck out Kapler looking at a nasty slider to end the inning.

Their bullpen tapped, the Angels optioned reserve outfielder Jeff DaVanon to triple-A Salt Lake after the game and recalled reliever Scot Shields.