Angel Offense Is a Hit at Last

The slumbering Angel offense did not merely awaken Saturday night, it leaped out of bed and hit the floor running, amassing a season-high 18 hits and providing flashbacks of the team that churned out hits and runs last season the way the New York Yankees crank out World Series championships.

One problem: The Angel pitching staff also provided a flashback of 2000, with starter Scott Schoeneweis and reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa getting rocked by the Minnesota Twins and forcing the Angels to outslug an opponent.

For once, the Angels were up to the task. Troy Glaus jump-started the dead battery that is the Angel offense with a two-run home run in the first inning and knocked in the winning run with a double in the ninth, as the Angels outlasted the Twins, 11-9, before 18,001 in the Metrodome.

What seemed like a runaway victory nearly turned into a gut-wrenching defeat for the Angels, who blew a six-run lead and fell behind, 9-8, in the seventh. But the Angels rallied for a run in the eighth and two in the ninth to snap a four-game losing streak and pull to within nine games of Oakland in the American League wild-card race.

The 3-hour 40-minute marathon featured 20 runs, 32 hits, 11 pitchers, 345 pitches, three errors and 21 runners left on base. The Angels had leads of 6-0 in the third and 8-3 in the fifth but couldn’t hold either. Then they battled back for a win that may not save their season but allowed them to save face.

“It could have been a crushing defeat, but you know what? It didn’t happen,” Angel center fielder Darin Erstad said. “There’s a lot of relief. This trip hasn’t been what you’d call a success. We’ve put ourselves in a tough situation, but we fought back today. I can see us building on this.”

Down by a run in the eighth, Scott Spiezio singled, left-handed-hitting Adam Kennedy doubled to right off tough Twin left-hander Eddie Guardado, and Spiezio scored on pinch-hitter Bengie Molina’s grounder to short for a 9-9 tie.

Erstad opened the ninth with a walk off Twin closer LaTroy Hawkins, David Eckstein bunted him to second, and Garret Anderson was intentionally walked. Glaus then banged an 0-2 Hawkins curve off the wall in right for an RBI double, and Spiezio added an insurance run with an RBI groundout. Closer Troy Percival struck out two of three in the ninth for his 37th save.

“It’s nice to finally help out our pitchers,” said Glaus, who leads the Angels with 25 go-ahead RBIs. “They’ve been pitching their tails off all season, and we haven’t been doing our job on a consistent basis. That’s what we need to do.”

Manager Mike Scioscia juggled his lineup again Saturday, moving Erstad from the third spot to leadoff, Eckstein from leadoff to second, Anderson from cleanup to third, Glaus from fifth to cleanup, and Tim Salmon from second to sixth.

“There’s not some magic pixie dust you can sprinkle on the lineup to make it produce,” Scioscia said. “We can shuffle the cards any way we want, but we need guys to start swinging the bats to their capabilities.”

Whether it was the shakeup or the number of good hitting pitches the Angels got, they turned their bats into magic wands. Glaus hit his 36th homer in the first, Orlando Palmeiro had a two-run double in the second, and Salmon (single) and Kennedy (sacrifice fly) knocked in runs in the third for a 6-0 lead.

But the pesky Twins battled back, scoring nine runs from the third through seventh innings, including three off Hasegawa in the seventh to take a 9-8 lead. Brian Buchanan hit a two-run double in the third and a two-run homer in the fifth off Schoeneweis.

Left-hander Mike Holtz got a key out to end the sixth, striking out Corey Koskie with a full-count fastball and runners on second and third, but Hasegawa crumbled in the seventh.

David Ortiz and Torii Hunter each hit RBI doubles off Hasegawa, and Eckstein’s throwing error on a potential double play allowed the Twins to score the go-ahead run. But Al Levine threw a scoreless eighth, and the Twins barely touched Percival in the ninth.

“I have so much confidence in this pitching staff, I don’t expect them to blow a one-run lead, let alone a six-run lead,” Scioscia said. “But we just kept grinding and came out on top, and that’s all that’s important.”