Power Loss for Angels

In the regular season, there will be no game more important for the Angels than today’s. If the Angels and Oakland Athletics tie for the American League West championship, today’s result could well determine the division title.

The Angels and A’s are counting the days until they clinch a playoff berth, but the critical question of which team wins the division and which receives the wild-card playoff entry could be settled today. That’s why, for instance, the Angels are prepared to use closer Troy Percival before the ninth inning today.

The Angels and A’s are tied again atop the AL West after Oakland hit four home runs and Cy Young Award hopeful Barry Zito won his 22nd game in a 7-4 victory Wednesday before a sellout crowd of 50,730. The A’s lead the season series, 10-9, the most important statistic of the day.

Because both teams are bound for postseason play--the magic number for each to clinch a playoff berth is four--there would be no extra game to settle a tie between the Angels and A’s. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head record, a category the A’s would win with a victory today.

If the Angels win, the season series would be tied, 10-10. The next tiebreaker is record within the division, and a victory today would give the Angels a three-game lead in that category, with nine to play.

The winner of the AL West draws home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs and gets the Minnesota Twins. The team that loses out on the division title also loses out on home-field advantage and faces the playoff-tested New York Yankees.

So long as the playoff picture remains clouded, Mickey Callaway is not scheduled to make another start this season. The Angels plan to skip his next start and, if the final two games matter, to use Kevin Appier and Ramon Ortiz on three days’ rest.

Callaway could make the playoff roster as a long reliever, although Wednesday’s performance did little to help his cause.

“If I do my job, I might have a chance,” he said. “If I keep on pitching the way I have the last two games, it’s not going to happen.”

Callaway, brilliant in his first three starts since replacing the injured Aaron Sele in the rotation, has failed to survive the fourth inning of successive starts against the A’s.

Callaway (1-1) took a 4-1 lead into the fourth inning, the one run for Oakland a homer by Mark Ellis in the second.

But the A’s scored six runs in the fourth, an outburst that featured solo homers from Eric Chavez and Jermaine Dye and a three-run homer from Ray Durham.

Zito (22-5) had wobbled through the first four innings, walking at least one batter in each inning. But, revitalized by the rally, he got four more outs and took home another victory. No Oakland pitcher has won more games in a season since Bob Welch won 27, and the Cy Young Award, in 1990.

Francisco Rodriguez, the Angels’ Venezuelan prodigy, made his major league debut and pitched a scoreless eighth inning, striking out two, with a fastball consistently timed at 95 mph and a fine slider at 83 mph. Rodriguez, 20, could develop into the setup man for Percival as soon as next season in the same way Percival broke into the major leagues as the setup man for Lee Smith.

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia, in a questionable move, used two pinch-hitters in the eighth inning but failed to bat for backup catcher Jose Molina. Orlando Palmeiro batted for Shawn Wooten, and Adam Kennedy for Benji Gil, but Scioscia opted not to use Brad Fullmer for Molina, trailing by three runs and with one man on base.

Scioscia said he wanted to save Fullmer in case he could be used later, representing the tying run. Scioscia also said he feared the A’s would counter the left-handed Fullmer with left-hander Ricardo Rincon but noted he could have then responded with Alex Ochoa.

Molina struck out and is hitless in his last 20 at-bats, with one hit in his last 27.