Angels’ victory is a real rush

Erick Aybar chopped a grounder to second base with the infield in, Reggie Willits raced home with the winning run, and the Angels flooded out of their dugout in the bottom of the 10th inning Tuesday, their celebration of a wild and wacky 9-8 victory over the Detroit Tigers filled with as much relief as joy.

“It was both,” center fielder Gary Matthews Jr. said after the Angels blew a seven-run, third-inning lead before scrambling to tie the score in the ninth on Vladimir Guerrero’s mad dash to the plate on a wild pitch.

“You never want to see a game like that get away from you, but it’s also something that builds morale and confidence. It lets you know that when you’re not at your best, you can find a way to win. That’s a mark of the better teams.”

The Tigers are among the best, the defending American League champions, and they showed why by overcoming their largest deficit since Sept. 27, 2003, when they erased Minnesota’s 8-0 lead in a 9-8 win that avoided their 120th loss that season.

But Detroit suffered a pair of breakdowns in the final two innings that stirred bitter memories of the 2006 World Series, when the Tigers’ fielding gaffes helped pave the way for St. Louis to win the championship.

Magglio Ordonez had given Detroit an 8-7 lead in the top of the ninth when he followed Gary Sheffield’s double by lining a two-run homer to left off closer Francisco Rodriguez, giving Ordonez a .321 average in 68 games against the Angels, with 17 home runs and 46 RBIs.

Tigers closer Todd Jones, on his 39th birthday, entered in the bottom of the ninth and got Orlando Cabrera to fly to right. After making the catch, Ordonez, noticing the position of the sun in Angel Stadium, came to the dugout for a pair of sunglasses.

Ordonez was still adjusting those glasses when Guerrero lofted Jones’ next pitch toward the right-field corner. Ordonez got a bad jump, and the ball landed just beyond his reach before bouncing into the seats for a ground-rule double. “I wasn’t ready -- I was fixing my glasses,” Ordonez said. “He threw the pitch. He didn’t wait for me. I don’t know if I would have caught it, but it was close. I think I would have caught it.”

Guerrero took third on Garret Anderson’s fly to deep center. With Casey Kotchman batting, Jones bounced a cut fastball in the dirt, the ball squirting about 15 feet behind the plate.

Guerrero, notorious for his occasional brain cramps on the basepaths, broke from third, and Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez initially broke the wrong way. Rodriguez quickly located the ball but flipped high and wide to Jones, and Guerrero slid home to tie the score, 8-8.

“You never know what you’re going to get from Vladdy when he runs the bases, but today was a great decision,” said Kelvim Escobar, who gave up three earned runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings. “That ball didn’t get very far from the catcher. It was a great read. That was a big play for us.”

Relievers Darren Oliver and Dustin Moseley blanked the Tigers in the top of the 10th. Kendry Morales opened the bottom of the inning with a high chopper toward third, a ball that appeared to be heading foul before Jones gloved it, ensuring Morales would reach on an infield single.

Jones compounded his mistake with a throw that sailed into right field for an error that enabled Morales to take second.

“I just messed up -- I blew it,” Jones said. “That ball would have spun completely foul. At the last second, I heard Pudge say something. By the time I realized what he said, I caught the ball. As soon as I let it go, I wanted it back.”

Willits ran for Morales, Maicer Izturis was walked intentionally, and Jose Molina’s sacrifice bunt advanced both runners. The Tigers brought their infield in, but Aybar bounced his grounder high enough so that second baseman Placido Polanco had virtually no chance to get the speedy Willits. “Talk about a roller coaster,” Manager Mike Scioscia said, sizing up the game.

It was an adventure for Willits too, even though the rookie spent most of the afternoon on the bench, riding the emotional highs and lows.

“And that,” Willits said, “was more nerve-racking than actually being out there running in the 10th inning.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com