Angels Do the Magic Number

It seemed somewhat silly at the time, all that talk from the Angels about resiliency during the worst start in franchise history.

Then the diminutive David Eckstein discovered a grand-slam swing, Jarrod Washburn rolled at the front of the rotation and Manager Mike Scioscia put it all together, so guess who’s laughing now?

The Angels again displayed their mettle Saturday in the kind of extraordinary performance that is becoming routine for them, rallying from a five-run first-inning deficit for an 8-6 victory over the Texas Rangers before 39,909 at Edison Field.

The resilient bunch (who could argue?) overcame three homers in the first against starter Kevin Appier, including Alex Rodriguez’s 55th, to win for the 15th time in 16 games, behind the American League’s top bullpen and a batting order that embraces the pressure of September as few have in Angel history.

The Angels (93-55) matched their franchise record for victories in a season, taking the first two games of the three-game series from Texas (69-79) and keeping pace with the Oakland Athletics atop the American League West as baseball’s best divisional race approaches the wire. The club’s magic number to qualify for the playoffs is seven.

It appeared the Angels would lose ground to Oakland on Saturday, but they were only catching their breath.

“One thing that these guys don’t do is panic,” said Scioscia, whose club also overcame a 5-0 deficit May 22 in a 7-6 victory over the Kansas City Royals. “They methodically keep playing the game and keep their focus, and it’s easy [not to] when you’re down, 5-0.

“It’s just fun to be around these guys. They play the game to the last out.”

They didn’t cut it that close this time.

The Angels had five hits in the fifth and took a 7-6 lead on Tim Salmon’s three-run homer--his 19th--to center against reliever Todd Van Poppel (3-2). Adam Kennedy’s seventh homer in the eighth against Rudy Seanez gave closer Troy Percival a two-run lead, and the cushion helped.

Percival overcame two walks by striking out Ivan Rodriguez, on a fastball clocked at 98 mph, for his 39th save in 43 chances and second in less than 24 hours. Scot Shields (5-3) worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings for the victory, and the Angels had another reason to party their way off the field.

“I don’t know what to say ... this club is just real special,” Salmon said. “Being down five and coming back like we did, you run out of words to describe the way we’ve been playing. It’s special to be a part of it.

“We’ve got a club that never quits and plays hard. I think that’s what every guy wants to be a part of.”

Relievers Dennis Cook, Shields, Scott Schoeneweis, Brendan Donnelly and Ben Weber held the Rangers in check for 4 2/3 innings after Appier was chased with one out in the fourth and charged with six earned runs. The bullpen gave the offense time to play catch-up. Shawn Wooten triggered the charge with a two-run homer in the second, and Scott Spiezio’s two-run single in the third cut the lead to 5-4.

Appier, whose five-start winning streak ended in his previous outing against Oakland, was yanked with one out in the fourth after giving up a single and walking two to load the bases. Left-hander Cook gave up a sacrifice fly to Mike Lamb, increasing Texas’ lead to 6-4, and Shields struck out Alex Rodriguez, stranding runners on the corners.

“My stuff was kind of flat and the location wasn’t very good ... just a bad day,” said Appier, whose earned-run average increased from 3.63 to 3.86 in his first non-quality start in more than two months. “Fortunately, the bullpen came in and picked me up, and the offense really picked me up big time.”

That’s nothing new for the Angels.