Piazza pulls a fast one

The Angel Stadium radar gun showed 97 mph, but that probably wasn’t for the Francisco Rodriguez fastball that was hurtling toward the plate in the ninth inning Thursday night.

Both the Angels closer and Manager Mike Scioscia agreed that the reading more likely reflected the velocity of the ball traveling in the opposite direction, off the bat of Mike Piazza, whose screaming, two-out liner cleared the center-field wall for a home run that lifted the Oakland Athletics to a 4-3 victory over the Angels.

“I don’t think it was a 97-mph fastball,” Scioscia said after the Angels’ first loss of the season, following a three-game sweep of Texas. “Sometimes off the bat, it adds a few miles per hour, but it was still a good fastball. Frankie turned it loose, and Mike squared it up. He still has that thunder in his bat.”

Piazza, 38, had hoped to bring that thunder to Anaheim in 2006 -- he wanted so badly to sign with the Angels that winter, his agent said he would have gladly agreed to a $500,000 contract.

But the Angels had Juan Rivera as their primary designated hitter and were committed to Jeff Mathis and Jose Molina behind the plate, and by the time they exhausted their pursuit of Boston slugger Manny Ramirez, Piazza had signed with the San Diego Padres.

“I talked to him and Bill talked to him,” Scioscia said, referring to Angels General Manager Bill Stoneman, “but there were a lot of things happening at that time that might not have given Mike the at-bats he was looking for.”

Piazza -- who signed his 2007 deal with the A’s in early December, three weeks before Rivera broke his leg in a winter league game in Venezuela -- said he doesn’t hold a grudge, though it was hard to tell, the way the veteran turned so viciously on Rodriguez’s 1-and-1 pitch, which he belted for his 420th career home run.

“You never take things personal,” Piazza said. “Teams have different philosophies, different needs, and if you concentrate so much on the doors that are closed, you don’t see the ones that are open. Some things are not a fit, but as a player, you can’t be fixated on that.”

Rodriguez, fighting a bad cold and allegations he doctored the ball this week, had never faced Piazza in a major league game, though the two did meet in 2006 during the World Baseball Classic, with Piazza grounding out to shortstop.

Rodriguez fooled Piazza with a first-pitch breaking ball for a swinging strike and threw another slider for a ball, but his 1-and-1 fastball was no cure-all, as Piazza, who doubled and scored in the first inning, sent his game winner on its way.

“It was right down the middle,” Rodriguez said. “With a power hitter like that and the game on the line, he’s trying to drive the ball out of the park, and he did. He’s been around a long time and has the numbers to be in the Hall of Fame. It didn’t surprise me at all.”

Twice, the Angels came back from deficits, tying the score at 2-2 on back-to-back home runs by Vladimir Guerrero and Garret Anderson in the fourth and at 3-3 on Gary Matthews Jr.’s sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Angels setup man Scot Shields escaped an eighth-inning jam, inducing two groundouts with runners on second and third, and Rodriguez retired the first two batters in the ninth before Piazza’s homer, which decided yet another close game between the American League West rivals.

Of the last 20 games between the teams, 15 have been decided by two runs or fewer, including nine one-run decisions.

“That’s the greatest feeling in the world, because it’s fun to see everyone all happy, fired up, especially in a game like this,” said Piazza, a little drained from all the emotion.

“You’re up there, gripping the bat so tight sawdust is coming out, and you want to get that big hit. It’s, uh ... what can you say? We’ve got 18 more games against these guys? I want to go to bed. I’m tired.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com