Angels Still Can’t Solve the Indians

Bill Stoneman professed that the Angels are good enough to reach the playoffs without adding a big-name player before the July 31 trading deadline, though that certainly won’t be the case if their biggest-name player is the only one to come through in the clutch against the likes of the Cleveland Indians.

Vladimir Guerrero’s two-out single to right-center capped a two-run ninth inning rally Monday night at Angel Stadium before closer Troy Percival yielded a three-run homer to Travis Hafner during the 10th that left the Angels with a particularly disheartening 8-5 loss to the Indians in front of a sellout crowd of 42,986.

The Angels’ second consecutive defeat and third in five games after the All-Star break left them four games behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West and may have raised the specter of a so-so second half unless the team acquires a marquee player to position itself for a postseason push.

Consider that the Angels, who still trail the Red Sox by 1 1/2 games in the wild-card standings, are 1-4 this season against sub-.500 Cleveland -- with every game having been played at Angel Stadium -- after Hafner and Casey Blake each whacked a two-run homer off Aaron Sele. Hafner finished three for four with a career-high five runs batted in.

“This is a very good team, and it hasn’t played consistently,” Stoneman, the Angel general manager, said of his team before the game. “But we’re starting to see some better signs.... We have the talent to get in the playoffs.”

The Angels faced a two-run deficit in the ninth after Blake’s sacrifice fly off an uncharacteristically wild Brendan Donnelly put the Indians ahead, 5-3.

But pinch-hitter Robb Quinlan was hit by a David Riske pitch leading off, stole second and went to third on David Eckstein’s single through the left side of the infield. Chone Figgins followed with a double down the right-field line, scoring Quinlan and bringing Garret Anderson to the plate with the tying run on third and one out.

Anderson tapped back to Riske, who ran Eckstein back to third base and tagged him out after Figgins raced over from second. That brought up Guerrero, who drove in Figgins with his 80th RBI to send the game into extra innings.

Percival appeared on the verge of escaping the 10th unscathed when Matt Lawton bounced to Eckstein with two out, but the shortstop couldn’t handle the ball and was charged with an error.

“The ball had a lot of tailspin on it, and he never got it to where he could get a handle on it,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said.

Percival then walked Omar Vizquel on a full count before Hafner smacked another full-count pitch over the wall in center field.

“I threw a pitch that was probably an inch off,” said Percival (2-2), who has dropped nine consecutive decisions to the Indians, the longest losing streak in the majors by a player against one team. “My biggest fault was throwing the high fastball. Maybe I should have thrown something a little different.”

Guerrero had two hits and stole two bases for the Angels, who squandered numerous chances against five Cleveland pitchers. Bengie Molina’s run-scoring single in the seventh drew the Angels to within 4-2 and put runners on first and second with one out before Adam Kennedy popped out and Eckstein grounded out to third.

The Angels had two on and two out in the eighth after Guerrero drove in a run to make it 4-3, but Tim Salmon grounded out to second.

And Guerrero’s ninth-inning single put runners on first and second with two out before Darin Erstad popped out to left.

“It’s definitely frustrating after you saw the guys fight back,” Percival said. “But sometimes good hitters beat you.”

Said Scioscia: “When you give up eight runs it’s going to be tough. They got some big hits and scored some big runs.”