Escape From New York

Troy Percival got his save. Maybe it was a day late. Maybe it was a tad too suspenseful. Frankly, in the early hours of this morning, the Angels were too drained, too exhausted and too relieved to care about anything but the final score.

And, when shortstop David Eckstein caught a pop fly at 12:31 a.m. EDT, one that he said took “a very long time” to descend, the Angels had subdued the relentless New York Yankees, 8-6. Percival got his save. The rest can wait until after the Angels rest.

“Mentally, I’m pretty exhausted,” Percival said. “Physically, I feel pretty good. I can go out there and throw three innings if I have to.”

The Angels lost the first game of the best-of-five division series and won the second game, and the burning question in each game was the same: How would Angel Manager Mike Scioscia use his closer?

Scioscia wouldn’t use him for 1 1/3 innings Tuesday, and the Angels lost. He used him for 1 1/3 innings Wednesday, and the Angels won. Too simple, perhaps, but this isn’t: The Angels split the two games here, so the series moves to Anaheim for the next two games. Win those two, and the Angels need not return to Yankee Stadium. Win two of three, with home-field advantage now on the Angels’ side, and the Angels win the series.

“I’m not going to go and say we’re going to run the table on them in Anaheim,” left fielder Garret Anderson said. “But to take one in somebody else’s park in the playoffs, you’ve accomplished something, especially in this park, where they make things happen.”

After two tense games, with Wednesday’s game lasting four hours and 11 minutes, with the teams combining for 29 hits and eight pitching changes amid the cacophony of Yankee Stadium, center fielder Darin Erstad was too exhausted to think ahead.

“This has been like playing 40 regular-season games in a row,” he said.

The Angels blew a 4-0 lead and still won. First baseman Scott Spiezio had three hits, including a home run, and drove in three runs. In the eighth inning, Anderson and Troy Glaus tagged Yankee starter-turned-reliever Orlando Hernandez for back-to-back home runs.

Anderson tied the score, 5-5, and Glaus put the Angels ahead to stay. Glaus, doing his finest imitation of a college basketball player who struggles in the regular season and shines in the spotlight of the NCAA tournament, has hit three home runs in his last seven at-bats.

Glaus, who rarely displays even a hint of emotion, pumped his fist as he rounded first base.

Percival pumped his fist after the final out, but he does that after every save. One night after Scioscia left his closer marooned in the bullpen, Percival got his save.

With the Angels ahead, 7-5, Ben Weber started the eighth inning, as he did in Tuesday’s wrenching defeat. Weber got one out, then gave up back-to-back singles to Nick Johnson and Raul Mondesi. The latter hit caromed off the bare hand of Weber, and Scioscia and pitching coach Bud Black walked to the mound to check on the injured pitcher. Weber was diagnosed with a sprained index finger and will undergo X-rays today in Anaheim.

Percival was warming up in the bullpen. Scioscia opted for Brendan Donnelly, who had not been warming up.

Percival shrugged twice, for a national television audience to see. Scioscia hadn’t used Percival to get five outs all season, and he wasn’t about to start now.

“I was a little puzzled,” Percival said. “I had my adrenaline going. I had my reins pulled back.”

Donnelly struck out pinch-hitter John Vander Wal.

Now, there were two outs in the eighth, with the game on the line, the same situation in which Scioscia left Percival stranded in the bullpen Tuesday. This time, he summoned Percival.

“Buddy Black was kicking me to get out there,” Scioscia said.

This time, Scioscia explained, there was no left-handed hitter for left-hander Scott Schoeneweis to face.

“I was chomping at the bit to get out there,” Percival said.

On his first pitch, at the stroke of midnight, he hit Alfonso Soriano in the back, with a 97-mph fastball. Percival had not hit a batter all season. The Yankees had the tying run in scoring position, the winning run on first base.

The next batter, Derek Jeter, had reached base in seven of eight plate appearances in the series. Percival struck him out on four pitches, the last a 98-mph fastball on the outside corner.

The Angels added a run in the ninth, on a double by Spiezio, and so Percival took an 8-5 lead to the bottom of the ninth.

Nothing came easy for the Angels this season, including the final three outs Wednesday. The Yankees got three hits and suddenly trailed 8-6, with the tying runs on base, the winning run at the plate and one out.

Johnson struck out. Mondesi popped up. Game over. Save, Percival.

It was the first time the Yankees have lost a postseason game at Yankee Stadium when they led after the seventh inning.

The Angels led, 4-3, in the sixth when they tried their new kid in the bullpen, bypassing long reliever Scot Shields for 20-year-old phenom Francisco Rodriguez. It didn’t work, but Rodriguez was not completely to blame.

Rodriguez struck out Johnson, gave up a single to Mondesi, then got Juan Rivera to ground into an apparent inning-ending double play. But second baseman Benji Gil juggled the relay from Eckstein, then threw wildly to first base for an error. Mondesi was forced at second, but Gil’s inability to complete the double play extended the inning.

Soriano, the next batter, golfed an 0-2 curveball over the left-field fence, a two-run homer that gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead. As Soriano circled the bases, Gil lowered his head, an expression of atonement and frustration.

Kevin Appier, who appeared to run out of gas toward the end of the regular season, pitched more on guts than on fuel Wednesday. He pitched a total of 15 innings in the final three starts of the regular season, and he sweated out five innings. He needed 91 pitches to do so, falling behind in the count consistently.

The Angels did another terrific job exhausting the Yankees’ starting pitcher. Andy Pettitte, who had lost once since July 23, was gone after three innings, and after the Angels had piled up eight hits.

Pettitte made 66 pitches. In the two games of the series, Pettitte and Roger Clemens combined to make 179 pitches in 8 2/3 innings. But the last one belonged to Percival.

Full coverage of the Angel-Yankee series, including photo galleries and postgame audio, can be found at latimes.com/angels.