There’s No Catch to This Win

A crowd of reporters huddled around Jeff DaVanon on Friday, a good sign for an Angel team without a superstar, a team that cannot succeed without contributions from everyone on the roster. DaVanon had made the play of the day, with teammates crowding around clubhouse video monitors to check out replays before plunging into the postgame buffet.

DaVanon, a reserve outfielder and a quiet sort, didn’t have too much to say about his play, in which he robbed Trot Nixon of an apparent game-tying home run, then crashed against the outfield fence as he and the ball rolled onto the field, in separate directions. So, after DaVanon pitched in to help the Angels win, the media-savvy Scott Spiezio pitched in to help DaVanon.

“Weren’t you thinking about Willie Mays’ catch?” Spiezio said. “He was thinking about the ESPY.”

This wasn’t the World Series, and DaVanon didn’t even make the catch. But his play ranked at the top of an impressive list of highlights in a 6-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox. The Angels erased a four-run deficit, Eric Owens and David Eckstein manufactured the winning run, and Troy Percival got the official save and DaVanon the unofficial one.

After the Angels scored the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth, they asked Brendan Donnelly to preserve the 6-5 lead in the bottom of the inning. Donnelly got the first two outs, and then Nixon launched a line drive to deep right-center field. DaVanon, who had just entered the game as a defensive replacement for right fielder Tim Salmon, retreated frantically.

“I thought it was gone,” Donnelly said.

“He had to basically outrun the ball to catch up to it,” Percival said.

One step shy of the wall, DaVanon backhanded the ball. The wall is five feet high there, fronting the Angel bullpen, and Percival said the ball would have cleared it.

With his next step, DaVanon crashed into the wall, with such force -- “I felt it,” Percival said -- that the ball was dislodged from his glove.

“In Anaheim, he’d probably still be on the ground,” outfielder Eric Owens said. The right-field wall is 18 feet high at Edison Field.

“That’s why I don’t play football,” DaVanon said. “I can’t hold it after I get hit.”

The ball popped into the air and, fortunately for the Angels, landed on the outfield grass instead of landing over the fence for a home run. DaVanon scrambled to his feet, retrieving the ball quickly enough so that Nixon got a triple, not an inside-the-park homer.

Donnelly got the next hitter, Percival retired the side in the ninth, and the Angels recovered from a 4-0 hole after two innings.

In the eighth, with the score tied 5-5, Owens led off with his second hit, beating out an infield grounder with a dive and lifting his average back over .200. “About time,” he said.

With Owens running, Eckstein spied shortstop Nomar Garciaparra breaking to cover second base and fought off an inside fastball, poking a soft grounder into the vacated hole. Owens sped to third on Eckstein’s single, then scored from there on a ground ball by Adam Kennedy

“I probably hit that at about 13%,” Eckstein said.

That was enough.