Throwing a Splitter

The Angels won beneath the big top.

Inside the Metrodome, where the grass is fake and the noise level exceeds inhuman, the Minnesota Twins are an extraordinary team. Outside, the Twins are by definition an ordinary team.

So the Angels took a huge step toward the World Series on Wednesday, neutralizing the Twins’ dome-field advantage with a 6-3 victory in the second game of the American League championship series.

With home runs from Darin Erstad and Brad Fullmer and some high-octane relief pitching, the Angels flew home happy, with a split in the first two games of the best-of-seven series.

“I don’t really buy into home-field advantage,” said Angel pitcher Jarrod Washburn, who will start Game 3 Friday. “But if there is a home-field advantage, these guys have it. They’re used to playing on this joke of a field and dealing with the roof and turf and all those things.

“It’s big to come out of here with one.”

It’s a best-of-five series now, with the next three games in Anaheim. Sweep at home, and the Angels are done with the dome. The home-field advantage belongs to the Angels.

“It can be taken right back,” Erstad said. “We’ll probably have to win another one here. But this was definitely a very important game.”

And a weird one. Gov. Jesse Ventura sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” dedicating it to Bud Selig. The video board displayed a picture of former Angel and Twin pitcher Bert Blyleven next to a picture of Bert from “Sesame Street.”

A record crowd of 55,990 stood, and hollered themselves hoarse, and waved their “Homer Hankies” to no end.

The Angels wobbled, but they did not fall. They took a 6-0 lead in the top of the sixth inning; they were biting their nails in the bottom of the inning. Ramon Ortiz carried that shutout into the bottom of the inning. He got one more out, but the Twins got three runs, and the bullpen preserved his victory from there.

Brendan Donnelly got two outs, one by strikeout. Francisco Rodriguez got five outs, three by strikeout. Closer Troy Percival got four outs--three by strikeout--and the save. He retired the side in order in the ninth inning, no surprise against the Twins. In 34 career appearances against Minnesota, he never has given up an earned run.

Although the save was recorded in the ninth inning, it was earned in the eighth. With two on and two out and the tying run at the plate, Angel Manager Mike Scioscia summoned Percival to replace Rodriguez, veteran heat replacing rookie heat. Percival won, without heat.

The batter was a pinch-hitter, Bobby Kielty, an old friend from Riverside. Kielty’s father was one of Percival’s teachers at Moreno Valley High. Kielty took a 97-mph fastball and a 98-mph fastball, fouled off a 97-mph fastball and a 98-mph fastball. Percival then caught him looking at a changeup, clocked at 86 mph, for strike three.

Percival throws a changeup about as often as the fans here shut up.

“Changeup, split, forkball, whatever you want to call it,” Percival said. “Depends on my grip. I make it up every time.”

The Angels got four hits in nine innings Tuesday. They got five in the first two innings Wednesday. Erstad homered in the first inning. The Angels scored three runs in the second, and Fullmer added a two-run homer in the sixth. Amid all the weirdness off the field, a weird play on the field suggested this would be the Angels’ night.

With the Angels up 1-0, Troy Glaus singled to start the second inning, and Fullmer doubled him to third. Scott Spiezio dropped a double inches inside the right-field line, so close to being caught that Fullmer had to stay close to second base and could only reach third on the double. Bengie Molina flied out, too shallow for Fullmer to tag and score. Adam Kennedy grounded out, but Fullmer was running on contact and thrown out at home.

With Spiezio at third and Kennedy at first, Minnesota pitcher Rick Reed tried the old fake-to-third, throw-to-first play. You know, the one that never works. It worked. Kennedy had broken for second base on a steal attempt, so the Twins had him in a rundown. Spiezio broke for home, and so the Twins threw home. Spiezio, who appeared to be dead at home plate, did not bother sliding. But Spiezio knocked the ball away from catcher A.J. Pierzynski and he was safe.

The Angels had botched the play, and they still had scored. They would score again too, on a single by David Eckstein.

“You feel good about that,” said outfielder Tim Salmon, who left in the third inning because of a tight hamstring. “You feel good about the fact that you made a mistake and still have it turn out good.”

Beneath the big top, weird things can happen. Even this: The other Troy pumped his fist. Third baseman Troy Glaus, usually stoic on the field, pumped his fist after an important strikeout in the sixth inning. Percival, who usually pumps his fist after every save, did not do so this time.

On this night, the final score was satisfaction enough. The series is tied, the Homer Hankies have been put away, and here come the thunder sticks and the Rally Monkey.

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Triple Play

The Angels return home for Games 3, 4 and 5 with a chance to win the ALCS with a sweep. Since the league championship series expanded to seven games in 1985, only four teams have swept Games 3, 4 and 5, and two of those sweeps were by the visiting team. A look:

*--* HOME TEAM SWEPT THREE Year Team Opp. (Result) 1985 St. Louis Cardinals Dodgers (Cardinals won series, 4-2) 1989 San Francisco Giants Chicago Cubs (Giants won series, 4-1) VISITING TEAM SWEPT THREE Year Team Opp. (Result) 1991 Minnesota Twins Toronto Blue Jays (Twins won series, 4-1) 1996 New York Yankees Baltimore Orioles (Yankees won series, 4-1)

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