Angels Get a Blast From Past to Win

Angel fans in search of spine-tingling moments have not gone wanting this season -- a montage of 2002 playoff highlights appears nightly on the Edison Field scoreboard.

But the 2003 Angels have not created many “I-was-there-when” memories during their undistinguished World Series title defense -- except, perhaps, against the Minnesota Twins.

The first came when the Angels defeated Minnesota in mid-July to complete a three-game sweep and raise short-lived prospects of another red October. The second came when Scott Spiezio’s late home run Wednesday propelled the Angels to a 5-4 victory over the Twins.

Certainly, Spiezio’s seventh-inning solo shot off reliever Juan Rincon to break a 4-4 tie was not as significant as a victory that gave the Angels a five-game winning streak heading into the All-Star break, but it sent a midweek crowd of 36,323 home happy.

“It was nice to hit a home run that put us ahead to give us the win,” said Spiezio, who has tied a game or given the Angels the lead with 11 of his last 19 runs batted in. “The biggest thing was to get a win.”

Relievers Brendan Donnelly and Troy Percival closed out the victory that snapped a two-game losing streak and gave the Angels a 4-1 record this season against the Twins.

Donnelly pitched himself into and out of a bases-loaded mess in the eighth, striking out pinch-hitter Michael Ryan to end the inning, and Percival pitched the ninth for his 28th save. Percival has not allowed an earned run in 37 career innings against Minnesota and is the only active pitcher to throw 30 or more innings against a team without allowing an earned run.

“We take pride in being the best bullpen, but right now I don’t think we are,” said Donnelly, who has not been able to maintain his torrid first-half pace and recently revealed he has been pitching with bone chips in his right elbow. “We’ve been getting touched, and we don’t like that.”

The adequate relief work capped a sometimes sloppy, sometimes spectacular effort in which the Angels committed two errors but also picked off two baserunners during a back-and-forth contest.

Chone Figgins had three hits to raise his average to .339 and Bengie Molina hit a home run in the sixth to give the Angels a 4-3 lead. Outfielder Jeff DaVanon, who entered in the eighth as a defensive replacement for Tim Salmon, made a quick throw toward home on A.J. Pierzynski’s single to right in the eighth inning to keep Doug Mientkiewicz from scoring from second base.

“I told [DaVanon], ‘Nice throw,’ as soon as I got in the dugout,” Donnelly said. “If he hesitates for a second, they send [Mientkiewicz].”

Figgins got the Angels off to a good start in the bottom of the first inning when he led off with a triple and scored when pitcher Kenny Rogers’ throw to first on Eric Owens’ dribbler up the third-base line sailed past Mientkiewicz for an error.

Owens took second on the error and eventually scored on Salmon’s sacrifice fly to give the Angels a 2-0 lead.

The Angels made it 3-1 in the third when Salmon drew a full-count walk, went to second on a fielder’s choice and scored on Shawn Wooten’s single to left.

Angel starter Aaron Sele was lifted with one on and two out in the sixth in favor of reliever Ben Weber, with Matthew LeCroy representing the tying run at second base. Torii Hunter’s single to shallow left field scored LeCroy to tie the score at 3-3.

But with one out in the bottom of the inning, Molina homered to left on the first pitch he saw from Rogers to put the Angels back ahead.

The lead was again short-lived. Denny Hocking led off the seventh with a walk, moved to second on Cristian Guzman’s infield single and took third when Molina’s throw to first squirted past Adam Kennedy for an error. Shannon Stewart drove in Hocking to tie it, 4-4, with a fielder’s choice.