Angels Limp Home After Win

An already disastrous trip threatened to take a turn for the worse in the ninth inning Thursday when the Texas Rangers hit a leadoff home run and then loaded the bases, necessitating the use of closer Troy Percival even though the Angels held a five-run lead.

The move might have seemed excessive, considering it was still July. But the Rangers had rallied from a four-run deficit the previous night and the Angels were tumbling out of playoff contention with six losses in their first seven games after the All-Star break.

Percival escaped with only one run scoring, and the Angels emerged from The Ballpark in Arlington with a 10-6 victory over the Rangers that allowed them to salvage a sliver of hope from an otherwise demoralizing three-city, eight-game trip they finished 2-6.

“We’re obviously disappointed,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said, “but we’re not looking back. We turn the page real well.”

Kevin Appier pitched six solid innings to record his first victory over the Rangers since May 1996 and David Eckstein went four for five with two runs batted in as the Angels split the two-game series with Texas and returned to Southern California optimistic they could sustain the winning formula.

“Hopefully, we can get some momentum going into this home set,” said Eckstein, who has excelled since returning to the leadoff spot Monday. “We need to start playing consistent baseball like we were before the All-Star break.”

The good news for the Angels was that as poorly as they have played over this recent stretch, they lost only one game in the American League West standings to first-place Seattle. The Angels (51-49) trail the Mariners by 9 1/2 games with 62 games remaining in the regular season.

“The big thing is we don’t have much time,” said infielder Scott Spiezio, who had two hits and drove in three runs. “We’re going to have to start playing the way we can or we’re going to be in trouble.”

Appier (7-6) took a decent first step by giving up four hits and two runs to end a streak of 10 consecutive losses against the Rangers. The veteran right-hander took a one-hitter into the sixth, when he got two outs before Hank Blalock and Alex Rodriguez hit back-to-back solo homers.

“Right out of the chute I didn’t have an adjustment lull,” said Appier, who lasted only 1 1/3 innings during his last outing, when he gave up seven runs. “I felt in command. Not even my home-run pitches were horrible.”

The Angels pieced together an impressive scoring outburst a second consecutive night, with three runs in the second and two more in the third to build a 5-0 lead. But unlike Wednesday, when they quickly squandered a 4-0 advantage, the Angels made this lead hold up.

Shawn Wooten singled and eventually scored on an error in the fifth to give the Angels a 6-0 lead, and after the Rangers cut into the deficit with two homers in the sixth and another in the seventh, the Angels responded with three runs in the eighth.

Eckstein drew a one-out walk and scored when left fielder Laynce Nix dropped Darin Erstad’s routine fly ball. Garret Anderson was intentionally walked one out later and scored on Spiezio’s two-run double to right that gave the Angels a 9-3 lead.

The teams traded runs before Jason Jones opened the bottom of the ninth with a leadoff home run off reliever Scott Schoeneweis. Doug Glanville and pinch-hitter Marcus Thames then hit consecutive singles before Einar Diaz reached base when Eckstein booted a ground ball.

The Angels then turned to Percival, who allowed a run to score on Blalock’s grounder before finishing off the Rangers for his 22nd save.

“You have to keep it in perspective,” Scioscia said. “It’s an excellent offensive club over there in a hitter-friendly park. We needed to close that game out, and if we needed to use Percival, we needed to use Percival.”