Angels Refuse to Fade

Maybe Mickey Hatcher finally got some sleep Saturday night, after the Angels’ clutch-hit-powered 5-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Saturday resuscitated the team’s fading playoff hopes and provided some relief to the beleaguered batting instructor.

Hatcher watched his charges flail away for most of the last week, their offensive funk leading to five losses in six games and a number of sleepless nights for the Angel coach, and the stress was evident on Hatcher’s weary face Saturday morning.

“I die with these guys -- I’ve been beating my brain out every night, trying to find a way to get every individual going,” Hatcher said. “At crunch time, it’s all about confidence, getting guys to be loose, to have fun and to not make every at-bat like it’s the end of the world.”

Saturday’s win, which pulled the Angels within two games of the A’s in the American League West with eight games remaining, brightened the Angels’ outlook considerably as they enter the final week of the season.

Darin Erstad unleashed three weeks of frustration on a Mark Redman changeup in the fifth inning, crushing a three-run home run to right-center field that turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead and applied a pair of defibrillator paddles to the Angel offense.

And Garret Anderson, stuck in a two-for-27 rut and battling a knee injury, broke a 3-3 tie in the eighth with a run-scoring double into the right-field corner, evoking memories of his three-run double that gave the Angels a 4-1 win over the San Francisco Giants in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series.

Left-hander Jarrod Washburn kept the Angels in the game with a solid six-inning, three-run, five-hit effort; set-up man Francisco Rodriguez was dominant, striking out four of six batters in the seventh and eighth, and closer Troy Percival retired the side in order in the ninth for his 30th save, striking out Scott Hatteberg looking at a slow curve to end the game.

“It’s easy to look back and say we should have won five or six games here or there, but we won the game we needed to win,” Percival said. “In my mind, every game the rest of the season is a must-win game, unless [the A’s] want to go ahead and lose the rest of their games. I’d sure appreciate that.”

Had the Angels lost Saturday, they would have been four games back with eight to play, an almost insurmountable deficit. Tonight’s series finale against the A’s will have a similar swing effect: Win and the Angels are one game out; lose and they’re three back.

“From this point out, every game is huge,” said Washburn, who gave up a score-tying, two-run homer to Jermaine Dye in the sixth. “There aren’t many games left. They’re all very important.”

Several Angels felt their fortunes would turn with a big break, and they got one in the fifth inning Saturday when third baseman Eric Chavez, winner of three straight Gold Glove awards, booted David Eckstein’s one-out grounder.

No. 9 batter Chone Figgins singled to right, and Erstad, who was batting .215 (17 for 79) in September, tore into a 76-mph, 1-and-2 changeup, launching it into the bleachers for his seventh home run of the year and first since Aug. 19.

“There aren’t many better changeups in the game than the one he has,” Erstad said of the left-handed Redman. “He has better control of that pitch than any other. I faced him in college, and he was always tough.... You just have to foul off tough pitches, hope he leaves something over the plate, and don’t miss your pitch.”

The lead was short-lived, as Dye followed Chavez’s one-out single in the sixth with his 21st homer, pulling the A’s even, 3-3.

But reliever Chad Bradford hit Jose Guillen with a pitch to open the eighth, and Angel Manager Mike Scioscia sent Alfredo Amezaga in to pinch-run, a move that did not sit well with Guillen, who walked slowly off the field and tossed his helmet into the dugout.

Manager Ken Macha summoned left-hander Ricardo Rincon to face Anderson, even though Anderson had five hits, including two doubles, and five RBIs in 11 career at-bats against Rincon.

Scioscia’s move worked. Macha’s did not. Anderson poked a double into the right-field corner and the speedy Amezaga scored standing up for a 4-3 lead. Figgins’ two-out single to left scored Anderson, Percival nailed down the victory in the ninth, and the Angels went home happy.