Order Is Restored by Angels

The Detroit Tigers have had their trouble with fundamentals this season--hitting and fielding among them.

Add another to the list: getting the lineup straight.

The Angels played Wednesday’s game under protest after a bizarre situation unfolded when the Tigers batted out of order in the second inning.

In the end, the point was pleasantly moot: The Angels won anyway, taking a 5-4 victory before 23,391 at Edison Field courtesy of Darin Erstad’s pinch-hit RBI double during a four-run sixth.

“I’m glad we won the game,” first baseman Scott Spiezio said. “I’d hate to have to follow through with all the protest stuff--and if they did turn it over, that’s not fun either. I’m glad we got it done.”

The Angels trailed, 4-1, before the four-run sixth inning helped them to their 34th come-from-behind victory of the season.

Spiezio drove in three runs and Erstad--in his second-consecutive pinch-hit appearance--drove in the game-winner in the sixth.

“Erstad, he’s been pretty productive, but we like him in there for nine innings,” Spiezio said.

By winning, the Angels maintained their two-game lead over Boston in the wild-card race and moved to one game behind Seattle in the American League West.

The lineup snafu made a mess of things.

The official lineup cards exchanged before the game had catcher Brandon Inge batting eighth and third baseman Chris Truby batting ninth. But the lineup the Tiger players saw before the game--and the one announced in the stadium--had Truby eighth and Inge ninth.

When Truby came to the plate eighth in the second and struck out to end the inning, Angel Manager Mike Scioscia noted the disagreement with the official lineup. But he wanted to wait to protest because Truby made an out.

When the Tigers came to bat in the third, leadoff hitter Hiram Bocachica came to the plate--meaning Inge never batted, and the Tigers completed their first time through the lineup with only eight batters. (Inge didn’t make his first trip to the plate until the fourth inning.)

Scioscia kept trotting out to complain to crew chief Gary Darling, finally lodging a protest on two counts. One, that Inge should never have moved ahead of Truby in the lineup later in the game to hit an RBI double in the fourth. And two, that the umpires aided Detroit Manager Luis Pujols by advising him that Bocachica was the correct batter to start the third after the initial error.

Rule 6.07 states: “When an improper batter bats and reaches base or is out and no appeal is made before the pitch to the next batter, or before any play or attempted play, that improper batter is considered to have batted in proper order and establishes the order that is to follow.”

It was a mess best left alone--and Darling said the Angels wouldn’t have won a protest based on rule 6.07 anyway.

“We were 100% right,” he said.

Scioscia had to wonder.

“The umpires are not supposed to counsel [Pujols] on who to send up,” Scioscia said. “All of a sudden Bocachica comes up, which I know wasn’t right.”

He also sensed the potential for a mammoth loophole if there was no penalty for skipping your No. 9 hitter.

“If there’s any way you can gain an advantage by a mistake in the lineup, then something’s wrong with that.”

The Angels were happy to escape.

Ramon Ortiz (10-9) gave up four runs over 6 1/3 innings to earn his first victory since July 19 and only his second since June, and Troy Percival pitched the ninth for his 28th save.

Ortiz gave up two home runs--to Bobby Higginson in the fourth and Shane Halter in the sixth--but nevertheless left the game with a 5-4 lead.

Ortiz was only 1-4 in his previous nine starts, and the Angels have been hoping for signs he is beginning to come around.

“Until you maintain a certain level, probably your confidence might slip,” Scioscia said. “It might be a little from the neck up right now, but there are some mechanical issues he needs to address. I feel confident he’ll be back and be productive.”

For the Tigers, it was another lost night--and another strike against Pujols, who appropriately claimed the blame even though coach Felipe Alou posted the incorrect card for the players.

“We were going about it exactly the way it was on the wall,” Inge said. “I mean, there was no way for us to know. What they put up there is what we go by. It was the same card they put up before the game.... Then they corrected it, but by that time it was too late.”