Angels Manage Angst Downside

The Angels’ little shop of horrors was open for business Sunday. A work week filled with ghastly collapses and freakish plays took another bizarre turn in the seventh inning when reliever Brendan Donnelly botched a routine throw to first, allowing Seattle to score the tying run.

But unlike Thursday’s shocking finish in Oakland, when the A’s scored the winning run on a walk-off brain cramp -- when Angel closer Francisco Rodriguez muffed a throw back from the catcher and Jason Kendall raced home from third -- Sunday’s gaffe did not cost the Angels a game.

Darin Erstad came up with a two-out single in the top of the eighth inning, third baseman Chone Figgins and catcher Bengie Molina teamed up on a game-saving defensive play in the bottom of the inning, and the Angels pulled out a 7-6 victory over the Mariners in Safeco Field.

Vladimir Guerrero’s three-run home run and Molina’s solo shot highlighted a five-run fifth inning for the Angels. Casey Kotchman, a late addition to the lineup when Garret Anderson was scratched because of lower-back tightness, hit a solo home run in the fourth, and Rodriguez struck out two of three in the ninth for his 27th save.

The win completed a three-game sweep of the Mariners and a 4-2 trip through Oakland and Seattle and pushed the Angels into first place in the American League West, a game ahead of the A’s.

After reliever Scot Shields blew a lead by giving up three seventh-inning runs in Wednesday’s loss to Oakland; after Donnelly blew a four-run lead in Thursday’s loss to the A’s; and after Rodriguez suffered the indignity and humiliation of Thursday’s ending, there was a palpable sense of relief in the Angel clubhouse Sunday.

“I can’t imagine how we would feel if we had lost this game,” Donnelly said. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

That’s because Donnelly, who came within inches of a wild pitch during an intentional walk to Ichiro Suzuki with runners on second and third and two out in the seventh inning of a tie game Friday, would have borne the brunt of it.

Sunday, the Angels were ahead, 6-5, and were one out away from escaping the seventh inning when Raul Ibanez tapped a slow roller to the mound as Suzuki took off from third.

Donnelly fielded the ball cleanly but took an awkward step toward first and short-armed what should have been an easy, 55-foot throw. The ball bounced far in front and wide of Erstad, who wouldn’t have been able to keep his foot on the bag even if he had scooped the throw.

Suzuki trotted home with the tying run.

“That error wasn’t committed by me,” Donnelly said. “It was committed by the little girl down the street, because that’s what I felt like when I released it. I don’t know what I was doing.

“I picked it up and thought, ‘OK, we’re out of the inning.’ Then I forgot everything I’ve ever learned in my life. I didn’t move my feet. It was one of my more embarrassing moments.”

It will be addressed Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. in Angel Stadium, when the Angels will get a little refresher course on something they do virtually every day in spring training: pitchers’ fielding practice, also known as PFP.

“I’ve never seen a week of PFP like this in my life,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “From nearly throwing away an intentional walk, to missing the throw back to the mound, to [botching] a 55-foot throw to first ... we’ve seen it all. It’s something that has cropped up, and we’ve got to get it out of there.”

What ensued after Donnelly’s error allowed the Angels to laugh about it afterward. Mariner left-hander George Sherrill hit Adam Kennedy with a pitch to open the top of the eighth, and Kennedy took second on Figgins’ bunt.

Orlando Cabrera grounded to the mound for the second out, but Erstad, who entered Sunday with a .239 average against left-handers and struck out against Sherrill on Friday night, worked the count from 0 and 2 to 3 and 2 before slashing a single to center to score Kennedy for a 7-6 lead.

“Erstad put together one of the best at-bats I’ve seen in a long time against a tough pitcher,” Donnelly said.

The Mariners nearly tied it in the bottom of the eighth when Shields walked Sexson and gave up a one-out double to Jeremy Reed, moving Sexson to third.

But Figgins, who has played six different positions this season, all very capably, made a lunging grab of Yuniesky Betancourt’s smash to his left, spun and fired to Molina, who caught the throw wide of the plate but applied the tag on Sexson. Scott Spiezio flied to center to end the inning.

“He should get the utility Gold Glove Award if there was such a thing,” Erstad said of Figgins. “That was just straight, incredible athletic ability.”