Angels Slip Up Against Tigers in 11

As Ernie Banks might have said, this was a great night to play two . . . hours.

Intermittent showers and a constant drizzle turned Friday into a miserable night for baseball in Comerica Park, but the Angels and Detroit Tigers still sloshed their way through a 4-hour, 17-minute mud-a-thon that was as sloppy at times as the conditions.

Detroit overcame a four-run deficit with four unearned runs in the sixth and seventh innings, and Bobby Higginson brought the game to a merciful end with a home run to lead off the 11th, lifting the Tigers to a 7-6 victory before a crowd of 18,811.

Higginson, who saved the game by cutting down Orlando Palmeiro at the plate with a perfect throw from left field in the 10th, smacked left-hander Mark Lukasiewicz’s 2-1 fastball into the right-field seats for the game winner.

Lukasiewicz, who was called up from triple-A Salt Lake earlier Friday, was making his major league debut because four front-line relievers--Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Al Levine, Mike Holtz and Ben Weber--were unavailable after combining for eight of the 10 innings the bullpen threw against Chicago on Thursday night.

“We don’t get to pick our spots all the time,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We didn’t have a lot of bullets down there, but I was confident the guys we had could do the job.”

Right-hander Lou Pote, after walking in the tying run in the seventh, provided 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, getting out of a runner-on-third, no-out jam in the eighth and a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the ninth.

The Angels almost went ahead in the 10th when Palmeiro singled, David Eckstein bunted him to second, and Darin Erstad looped a single to left.

Third-base coach Ron Roenicke sent Palmeiro, who was nailed by 10 feet when Higginson threw home on a fly. “I was out by a mile--I thought it’d be closer,” Palmeiro said. Tim Salmon flied to deep left to end the inning, a ball that would have scored Palmeiro had he held on Erstad’s hit.

“We were looking at a wet field and a wet ball,” Scioscia said. “I’m not going to second-guess the decision to send him. That was a tremendous play that obviously had a huge impact on the game.”

So did two routine plays Angel starter Ramon Ortiz couldn’t make, errors that marred a strong effort in which the right-hander gave up two earned runs on eight hits and struck out eight in 6 1/3 innings.

With Detroit trailing, 6-5, in the seventh and a runner on second, Higginson grounded to the right of first baseman Wally Joyner, who flipped a perfect throw to Ortiz covering first.

But Ortiz took his eye off the ball and dropped it for an error, putting runners on first and third. Tony Clark walked to load the bases, and Pote walked Dean Palmer to force in the tying run.

The Angels, led by Joyner’s four hits and two runs batted in and Jose Molina’s home run, built a 6-2 lead, but one slip of Ortiz’s hand led to three runs in the sixth, as the Tigers pulled to within 6-5. Clark opened the inning with what seemed like a harmless chopper back to the mound.

Ortiz fielded the ball and transferred it to his bare hand, but as he tried to make an underhand toss to first, the slick ball fell out of his hand. Clark reached on the error, and Palmer singled to center. Ortiz struck out Deivi Cruz and Juan Encarnacion, but Damion Easley lined a ball to deep right-center.

Erstad sprinted toward the gap but couldn’t make a diving catch. The ball rolled to the wall, 420 feet from the plate, and Easley raced around the bases for an inside-the-park, three-run home run.

“I got a great jump, made a straight beeline for it, and I thought I had it all the way,” Erstad said. “I was a step late, I guess.”

Of course, had Ortiz made the simple play earlier in the inning, a spectacular play by Erstad would not have been necessary.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that play,” Scioscia said of Ortiz’s error. “I’m sure the ball was wet, but certainly, we shot ourselves in the foot. Ramon had two plays he should have easily made and didn’t. To win games at the major league level, you can’t continue to open the door for teams. Tonight we did and paid the price for it.”