Donnelly Earns Redemption

It was one strikeout, six pitches, but it was so much more.

It was redemption for Brendan Donnelly, but it was more than that as well.

By striking out John Vander Wal in the eighth inning of Game 2 of their division series Wednesday night, Donnelly helped save an 8-6 victory for the stubborn Angels over the New York Yankees and also might have helped save--well, if not the career--but the postseason legacy and reputation of Mike Scioscia, their equally stubborn manager.

Spitting at the criticism and second guessing that had greeted his decision to leave closer Troy Percival warming up in the bullpen as Bernie Williams slugged a decisive, two-out, three-run home run off Donnelly in the eighth inning of Game 1, Scioscia did it again.

Two on, eighth inning, the Angels leading, 7-5, Percival warming up in the bullpen, Scioscia in need of a pitcher because Ben Weber had just attempted to barehand Raul Mondesi’s one-hop grounder to the mound, spraining his index finger, and does the manager call for his up-and-ready closer?

Of course not.

As the television cameras catch Percival standing and shrugging, Donnelly takes off his windbreaker, trots to the mound, is given as long as he needs to warm up and responds by striking out Vander Wal with that Williams’ home run still fresh on his mind, although fresh might not be the word.

“Usually I’m able to put things like that behind me,” he would say later, “but I was still bitter, still disappointed.

“I mean, I would have paid to get into tonight’s game. I wanted to come right back. I wanted redemption, and it was huge for me to get it.”

He got it with that strike out of Vander Wal and was then gone.

Now Percival arrived to get the final four outs, surviving the customary Yankee threat in the ninth to help send the Angels back to Anaheim with a resilient split and providing Donnelly with a chance to get some sleep on the flight home, the Williams homer having deprived him of any when he got back to the hotel at about 1 a.m. Wednesday.

“My wife went to bed at about 1:30, but I didn’t lay down until 5,” he said. “I watched television and kept replaying the home run in my mind, trying to figure out what I might have done differently. I finally came to the conclusion that he just beat me. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again if I pitch long enough. You have to give him credit, although it’s still going to stay with me for a while.”

If there wasn’t a resiliency to Donnelly, however, he wouldn’t be here, wouldn’t be a 31-year-old rookie getting his first chance to pitch in the major leagues after a 10-year minor league odyssey in which he pitched for nine organizations, including two independent league teams, often going to bed in Chattanooga or Nashua or Altona thinking ... well, as he said after the Vander Wal strikeout, “What the hell am I doing this for? It’s time to go start a life. Then I’d wake up the next morning and tell myself, ‘This is what I do, this is what I am. I’m a ballplayer.”

Released by the Chicago Cubs in August 2000, the same organization that had also released him seven years before, Donnelly was signed as a minor league free agent by the Angels in January 2002, and made his major league debut this summer, becoming a pivotal piece in an unheralded and largely anonymous bullpen that became the best in the American League, based on statistics, at least.

While pitching primarily in set-up situations, Donnelly appeared in 46 games with one save, a 1-1 record and 2.17 earned-run average, limiting opponents to a .184 average, the best on the Angel staff and second best among AL relievers who pitched a minimum of 45 innings.

If some of that luster was dented recently as Donnelly gave up important home runs to Eric Chavez and Terrence Long in key games with Oakland down the stretch, Scioscia didn’t lose faith--before or after the bomb by Williams in Game 1.

Of course, Scioscia is limited in his options, but he put a positive spin again on Donnelly’s work after the Game 2 victory, saying that the right-hander, despite all of his minor league experience, is still a rookie on the major league stage and occasionally will attempt to force a pitch in a count and situation, as he did to Williams, that he shouldn’t.

“He’ll learn from experience,” Scioscia said. “His stuff is good enough. Our bullpen has got us here and it will get us through the playoffs. Brendan is a big part of that, but I didn’t bring him in tonight just to give him an opportunity for redemption. We didn’t want Troy to have to get five outs. We didn’t want him to stretch that far, and we liked the Donnelly/Vander Wal matchup more than bringing in [left-hander Scott] Schoeneweis and having them bring a right-handed hitter [Rondell White or Shane Spencer] off the bench.”

Donnelly certainly wasn’t intimidated by the assignment against the left-handed hitting Vander Wal, but he was surprised that Percival wasn’t called.

“I was caught a little off guard,” he said. “Troy was ready to go. Fortunately, I had been up [an inning earlier] so I was still halfway there. Like I said, I just wanted to get in, wanted to get back at it as soon as I could.”

And when you’ve been where Donnelly has been, had as many fast-food hamburgers as he has, pitching in the playoffs, on the stage that is Yankee Stadium, “is a dream come true, the fulfillment of a goal all players play for, and an opportunity I thought that I would never get. I can’t thank the Angels enough.”

Wednesday night, as Percival watched from the bullpen, the Angel manager owed his 31-year-old rookie thanks as well.