Angels’ Loss Is a Blooper

A swing, a broken bat, a soft liner into no-man’s land.

That’s how the Angels lost Wednesday, on a ninth-inning single by Royce Clayton that barely cleared the heads of the drawn-in infielders. The Angels lost to the Chicago White Sox, 7-6, after the usually reliable bullpen failed to get the six outs necessary to deliver a lead to closer Troy Percival.

“Everybody’s been dogging us,” reliever Ben Weber said. “Go ahead and dog us some more.”

For all its anonymity, the Angel bullpen has the best earned-run average in the American League. Weber, a 31-year-old rookie last season, converted all four save opportunities during Percival’s recent stint on the disabled list. Brendan Donnelly, a 31-year-old rookie this season, had not given up a run since returning from the minor leagues July 13 and has stranded all 14 runners he has inherited this season.

“Those guys have been fantastic all year,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “They’re going to continue to be there for us.”

With no lead for Percival to protect, Donnelly, who entered the game in the seventh, returned to the mound for the ninth inning. With the score tied, 6-6, Carlos Lee led off with a single. After Magglio Ordonez struck out, Paul Konerko singled Lee to third.

The Angels then walked Frank Thomas intentionally, loading the bases, and deployed their five-man infield. Darin Erstad moved from center field to first base, with first baseman Scott Spiezio moving to second base and second baseman Adam Kennedy moving almost directly in front of the base.

On the first pitch, Clayton poked a broken-bat single into shallow right field, with Lee scoring the winning run. Had the infield been playing at normal depth, the first baseman might have had a chance to make the catch, but the Angels had moved all five infielders in for the chance to field a ground ball and force Lee at home.

“Our confidence will be fine,” Angel starter Kevin Appier said, “but it’s kind of a bummer to be so close to winning and not be able to pull it out.”

The Angels led, 4-2, after four innings and increased the lead to 6-2 on solo home runs by Troy Glaus and David Eckstein.

Within two innings, the lead was gone.

Appier had retired seven of eight hitters entering the sixth inning, but Konerko doubled and Thomas homered to pull the White Sox within 6-4.

Appier completed the inning without further scoring, and Scioscia turned the game over to the bullpen, needing six outs to get the game to Percival.

Weber retired the first two batters in the seventh inning. He then hit Lee, with Ordonez following with a home run that tied the score, 6-6. Weber had not given up a home run since May 7.

White Sox Manager Jerry Manuel has enough trouble in his own clubhouse without raising eyebrows in opposing clubhouses, but in trying to compliment the Angels for their success he used a word that rankled them.

“Anaheim is a team I think is overachieving,” Manuel said Monday. “They have a manager who is doing a tremendous job. They have some players overachieving and doing the right things.”

Scioscia appreciates a compliment as much as the next guy, but he did not care for the word “overachieving.”

Said Scioscia: “I don’t think we have anyone having an uncharacteristically horrible season that would drag you down. I don’t think we have anyone having an uncharacteristically good season that would lift you up.”

The Angels had the fourth-best record in the league at the All-Star break but had the minimum one player selected to the All-Star game.

Pitcher Jarrod Washburn said he and Percival discussed Manuel’s quote.

“We were trying to figure out who the overachievers were,” Washburn said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys doing what was expected of them.

“I don’t agree with him at all. But I guess that tells us what he thought of us at the beginning of the year.”