Playing It Safe Works for Angels

Baseball, circa 2002: Your starting pitcher is throwing the game of his life. He has breezed through the first eight innings in 87 pitches. He is pitching a shutout and, but for a little tough luck, he would be tossing a no-hitter. The other team has an injury-depleted bench, with no pinch-hitters available to challenge your pitcher.

What do you do? If you’re Angel Manager Mike Scioscia, in this era of the closer, you yank Jarrod Washburn three outs away from the first shutout of his career so Troy Percival can record the save.

Percival was as impressive as Washburn. The Angel closer worked a perfect ninth inning, striking out two and throwing as hard as 98 mph, in securing a 1-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday.

With David Eckstein’s fourth-inning home run supporting the three-hit artistry of Washburn and Percival, the Angels crept within 2 1/2 games of the Seattle Mariners in the American League West and retained their half-game lead over the Boston Red Sox in the AL wild-card standings.

The Angels (69-48) tied the 1989 team for best record after 117 games in club history.

Washburn, the Angels’ ace, supported Scioscia’s decision to use Percival for the final inning.

“I’m not second-guessing that at all,” Washburn said. “I think he made the right decision. Obviously he did, because we won.”

Toronto ace Roy Halladay (14-5) lost for the first time since June 28. Washburn, who has won starts by scores of 10-6, 9-7 and 7-5 this season, was well aware he needed to be finer Sunday.

“A trait of a winning pitcher is knowing the type of game you’re in,” pitching coach Bud Black said. “You’ve got that instinctive feel of whether it’s going to be a low-scoring game or a high-scoring game, and you can pitch to win it either way. That’s what Washburn does.”

Washburn, 15-3 overall and 15-1 since April 13, needs to win five of his nine remaining starts to become the Angels’ first 20-game winner since Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan won 22 in 1974.

Washburn started the day with an upset stomach--”I was almost throwing up on the mound,” he said--but got stronger with each zero he put up on the scoreboard. Although he fights a tendency to make too many pitches--he made 115 through six innings in his previous start--he walked none and had one three-ball count Sunday, in a game Scioscia acknowledged was “probably the best game I’ve seen him pitch.”

One Angel said he wasn’t surprised to see Percival replace Washburn for the ninth inning, citing the caution of Scioscia and Black with regard to high pitch counts. Informed that Washburn’s pitch count was 87, the player shrugged and said, “It worked out.”

These were the hits Washburn had given up: an infield single, a flare over the head of the shortstop, Eckstein, and another flare just beyond the reach of second baseman Adam Kennedy. The Blue Jays did have the top of their lineup scheduled to hit in the ninth inning, but this was their bench: Jose Cruz Jr., who was unavailable because of injury, and Eric Hinske, who would not have pinch-hit against Washburn since he was benched against him.

In explaining his use of Percival, Scioscia cited the toll of the 86-degree day and the upset stomach upon Washburn. The pitcher said he could have worked another inning.

More important, Scioscia said, was the presence of Percival. The closer had not pitched since last Monday and was “as fresh as he was ever going to be,” Scioscia said.

“With a dominant closer, it can make your staff stronger,” Scioscia said, “sometimes at the expense of a starting pitcher who wants the ball from start to finish.... It’s not like having Percival is an albatross around our starters’ neck.”