Fabregas, Percival in Charge

Jorge Fabregas stood at home plate in the eighth inning Monday night watching the ball sail toward the right-field seats, not as an ego-driven power hitter might admire his handiwork but staring as if he couldn’t believe it.

Finally, as the ball bounced around in the empty Angel Stadium stands, he began his run around the bases and eventually stomped home plate with the winning run in the Angels’ 6-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

“For a second, I thought it was going to go foul,� he said. “I didn’t want to show too much emotion. I didn’t want to show up the other team.�

Fabregas isn’t a home-run hitter, so he has to be forgiven for standing and observing. With two homers in 391 major league at-bats, it was a sight worth savoring.

His only other homer came against Jason Bere of the Chicago White Sox last June 18. That one came in his 181st career at-bat, the most of any major leaguer without a home run at that time.

Rare or not, Fabregas’ homer enabled the Angels to complete a four-game sweep of Detroit and a six-game sweep of the homestand. It was their first sweep of six games or more at home since 1982 and a huge boost to the team, which was 5-8 after losing two in a row to Seattle last week.

“It means a lot,� Fabregas said. “It’s special. We won the game, we got the sweep.�

To be sure, Fabregas had a bit of help before an announced 17,039.

Troy Percival struck out the Tigers in the ninth inning to record his American League-leading seventh save. Mike James pitched a scoreless 1 2/3 innings to win his fourth game in relief.

It took starter Chuck Finley all of three batters to give up as many hits as in his last start. He overwhelmed the Toronto Blue Jays with a three-hitter last Wednesday, far and away his finest outing this year.

On Monday, Chad Curtis led off with a single. Mark Lewis doubled. Alan Trammell singled. And Finley’s night was only starting.

Although he went into the game with a 3-1 record, his earned-run average was an unsuitable 6.12. Even in his three-hitter, Finley said he didn’t feel as sharp as he would have liked.

“I thought he was pretty good when I looked at the tape the next day,� Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “[Finley’s] mechanics were so good] you couldn’t tell if it was going to be a forkball or a fastball.

“He might not have felt that good about it, but that comes from trying to always be better.�

Tiger starter Felipe Lira still had to fight his way through the Angel batting order. And that proved to be a chore.

By the end of the first inning, it was 2-2. After three, it was 3-3.

Chili Davis hit a two-run homer in the first and Tim Salmon delivered a run-scoring double in the third for the Angels.

Finley was gone with one out in the fifth after giving up four runs and eight hits. He made 114 pitches, 10 more than in his complete game against Toronto.

One key for the Angels was their continued mastery of Cecil Fielder in this four-game series. Fielder came to Anaheim Stadium on Friday leading the American League with nine homers.

After four games, he’s still at nine. Fielder was 0 for 14 in the series, reaching base only on a third-inning walk Monday.

Retiring second baseman Mark Lewis was another matter.

Lewis, who singled in the game-winning run with two outs in the ninth against the Angels a week ago, didn’t wait to the last minute Monday. He hammered Finley from the start.

He doubled and scored in the first, singled and scored in the third, hit a bases-empty homer in the fifth and doubled in the seventh. It was his league-leading 10th multiple hit game.

The Tigers, losers of six in a row, needed all the help they could get.

They played without Travis Fryman, who left the club Monday morning to be with his wife, Kathleen, who is expecting the couple’s first child, in Pensacola, Fla. That broke Fryman’s streak of 270 consecutive games played.

His was the third-longest streak by an active major leaguer. He was seven behind Chicago’s Frank Thomas and 1,901 behind Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr.