Heart, Sole for Angels

Play this one in October, and Jarrod Washburn and Tim Salmon are legends of the fall. And, thanks to the September heroics of Washburn and Salmon, the Angels crept ever closer to appearing on the playoff stage, the one on which legends are born.

For most of Tuesday evening, Washburn and Mark Mulder ascended to greatness, putting dueling zeros up on the scoreboard amid playoff-type intensity, in which one mistake could lose the game. In the 10th inning, one mistake did cost the Oakland Athletics the game, with Salmon hitting a home run off closer Billy Koch that gave the Angels an exhausting and exhilarating 1-0 victory.

“I’ve never been to the playoffs,” Angel closer Troy Percival said, “but I can’t imagine anything much more adrenaline-filled.”

Added Salmon: “I’ve never been to the playoffs, but I can’t imagine any more intensity than this.”

The Angels won for the 17th time in 19 games, reclaiming a one-game lead over Oakland in the American League West and reducing their magic number for clinching a playoff spot to four. Their 95 victories are the most in the league, one more than the A’s and New York Yankees, and if they maintain that distinction they would clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The 95 victories also match the Atlanta Braves for most in the majors.

Washburn, pitching on three days’ rest for the first time since double-A ball in 1997, threw eight shutout innings. Mulder threw nine shutout innings, tying a career-high with 12 strikeouts.

“It was almost like a prize fight,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “They just kept coming and coming.”

They fought to a draw through nine innings, and through the first out of the 10th. Koch threw all fastballs to Salmon, all from 95 to 97 mph. Salmon worked the count full, then crushed a 97 mph fastball, launching it high and deep into the left-field bleachers.

“It wouldn’t have gone out if the fence had been another 100 feet back,” Koch said.

The victory was not secured easily. The Angels handed the 1-0 lead to closer Troy Percival, who struck out Jermaine Dye for the first out. David Justice walked, and the A’s then employed Greg Myers as a pinch-hitter.

Myers hit a game-winning pinch-homer off Percival here in April, and he came within five feet of another. He drove a ball 400 feet, to the deep part of a spacious center field.

Oakland’s Miguel Tejada jumped out of the dugout and threw his hands up in anticipation, then threw his hands down in frustration as Darin Erstad made the catch on the warning track. Terrence Long flied out for the final out, giving Percival his 40th save this season and the 250th of his career.

But Percival was quick to tip his cap to the starters, in respect and almost in awe.

“It was probably the best-pitched ballgame, on both sides, that I think I’ve ever seen,” Percival said.

Washburn, quelling any concern about working on three days’ rest, pitched one of the most dominant games of his career. He gave up neither a hit nor a walk to the final 17 batters he faced. Of those 17, the only batter to reach base did so after striking out, when strike three was so nasty it skidded past catcher Bengie Molina for a wild pitch.

The A’s did not get a runner into scoring position against him. Washburn walked none, against a team known for coaxing walks, and struck out four.

He gave up a single in each of the first three innings and no hits thereafter.

Mulder was spectacular himself, not quite as efficient as Washburn but even more dominant. Mulder struck out the side in the first inning.

He struck out two in the fourth, two more in the fifth, two more in the seventh, two more in the eighth.

“It was almost a throwback game to when Marichal and Koufax went at it,” Oakland Manager Art Howe said, “just the wrong team came out on top.”

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MAGIC NUMBER

Angels’ magic number for clinching a playoff spot: 4

The magic number is derived by adding one to number of remaining games and subtracting number of games ahead in the loss column from the next team.