Angels Let One Get Away, 6-5

The area beyond the right-field wall in Comiskey Park may be known as the visitors’ bullpen, but to the Angels it seems like a big black hole, where late-inning leads go to disappear.

In a stadium where the Angels endured two of their most stunning losses of 2000, the usually reliable relief trio of Mike Holtz, Shigetoshi Hasegawa and Al Levine suffered another meltdown Wednesday night, giving up four runs in the last three innings of a 6-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox before a crowd of 13,458.

The Angels built a 5-2 lead on the strength of Troy Glaus’ 10th career multi-homer game, David Eckstein’s clutch two-out, two-run single in the seventh and another Ismael Valdes quality start. But Holtz couldn’t find the strike zone and Hasegawa found too much of it in the seventh, hanging a slider that Magglio Ordonez banged for a game-tying, three-run double.

Sandy Alomar then singled off Levine to open the ninth, Ray Durham bunted pinch-runner Josh Paul to second, and Jose Valentin knocked in the game-winner with his fourth hit, a double over the head of right fielder Tim Salmon.

The loss stirred memories of a 9-8 defeat at the hands of the White Sox in Comiskey last Sept. 1, when Levine and Hasegawa combined to give up six runs in the eighth, and a 13-12 defeat in Chicago on Sept. 3, when the Angels overcame a five-run deficit, took a two-run lead in the sixth and Hasegawa lost it in the eighth.

“We didn’t get it done, plain and simple, but we have to turn the page,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “The bullpen has been terrific all year. We’re going to win this type of game 99 times out of 100.”

No. 100 began when Scioscia pulled Valdes with one out, a runner on first and a three-run lead in the seventh.

Valdes limited the White Sox to three runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings, but his pitch count (109) was high, Chicago had the top of the order coming up, and Scioscia wanted to turn switch-hitters Durham and Valentin around to the right side.

What’s more, the Angel bullpen had a 3.04 earned-run average in the first 32 games, with the five top relievers--Troy Percival, Hasegawa, Levine, Holtz and Ben Weber--combining for a 2.18 ERAin 62 innings.

So Scioscia summoned Holtz, and the left-hander promptly threw a wild pitch, allowing Chris Singleton to take second, walked Durham on four pitches and gave up a bunt single to Valentin.

Scioscia pulled Holtz in favor of Hasegawa, who hung his first pitch to Ordonez. Ordonez lined it off the right-field wall for a three-run double, with Valentin sliding home just ahead of Adam Kennedy’s relay to the plate, to make it 5-5.

Hasegawa was the Angels’ most valuable pitcher in 2000, with a 10-5 record, 3.82 ERA and nine saves in 66 appearances. But he’s 1-2 with a 4.11 ERA and two blown saves this season, has allowed five of nine inherited runners to score, and most of his problems have come against first batters, who have eight hits in 14 at-bats against him.

“It seemed to take him a couple of pitches to get acclimated last year too,” Scioscia said. “He seems to make pitches when he has to, and after that pitch to Ordonez, he was money. Though he hasn’t hit his stride this year, he’s still the cornerstone of our bullpen.”

Hasegawa couldn’t pinpoint any reason for his first-batter inefficiency.

“The bases were loaded, and I don’t want to throw balls and get into trouble,” he said. “That’s my style, to throw first-pitch strikes, and that first pitch tonight was a slider. If I throw a fastball down the middle, it would get hit.”

Drowned out in the loss was a four-hit game by Benji Gil and a two-homer game by Glaus, who had only one home run in his last 20 games dating to April 16.