Angels Let One Get Away

SEATTLE â€”  Jose Cruz Jr.’s game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday had barely passed over Luis Alicea’s head when the Angel second baseman slammed his glove into the Kingdome AstroTurf.

A 1,000-volt wave of frustration seemed to surge through Alicea, who was so mad he didn’t bother watching Cruz’s shot land in the right-field seats, ending the Seattle Mariners’ dramatic 3-2 victory over the Angels before a crowd of 42,760.

It all hit Alicea at once--Angel reliever Rich DeLucia’s awful pitch to Cruz, the Angels’ failure to score off reliever Bobby Ayala after loading the bases with no outs in the top of the ninth, an opportunity to beat one of baseball’s best pitchers, Randy Johnson, and gain a game in the American League West standings--all wasted along with one of Dennis Springer’s best pitching performances of the season.

“We had them right there on the ropes and it slipped through our hands,� said Alicea, whose fly ball to shallow center with the bases loaded was the first out of the ninth.

“We pretty much gave them that game. We worked our butts off to get three guys on, and I didn’t get the job done. Then the big guys behind me didn’t get the job done. We should have won that game, and I’m sure [the Mariners] know that too.�

The Angels fell 5 1/2 games behind Seattle after losing three of four to the Mariners.

They scrapped to push across two unearned runs against Johnson, the 6-foot-10 Mariner ace who gave up five hits in eight innings but struck out only seven. And Springer stifled Seattle’s high-octane offense, giving up only two runs and four hits, including Paul Sorrento’s sixth-inning homer, in eight innings.

Then Mariner reliever Norm Charlton did his best to give the game away, giving up a single to Craig Grebeck and walking Gary DiSarcina and Tony Phillips to open the ninth with the score tied, 2-2.

Ayala replaced Charlton and fell behind Alicea, 3-1, but Alicea hit the next pitch weakly to center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., and pinch-runner Orlando Palmeiro was held at third.

“I was so mad because I was so confident in that situation--all the pressure is on the pitcher,� Alicea said. “I should have hit that pitch better.�

Dave Hollins chopped a grounder to first, and Sorrento threw home in time to force Palmeiro. Tim Salmon, who struck out looking against Johnson with the bases loaded to end the seventh, then looked at a called third strike on a full-count pitch he thought was outside, and the inning was over.

“It’s impossible to get out of that situation unless you have a 200-mph fastball like [Rob] Dibble,� Charlton said. “Bases loaded, no outs . . . that’s impossible. Bobby did that as well as it can be done. He beat three good hitters in their lineup.�

The Angels couldn’t beat the No. 9 hitter in Seattle’s lineup. DeLucia replaced Springer to start the ninth and got the second out when catcher Chad Kreuter threw out Russ Davis at third, as Davis tried to go from first to third on a wild pitch that bounced to the third-base dugout.

DeLucia then threw a 1-and-2 fastball down the middle that Cruz ripped for his sixth home run of the season, touching off an indoor fireworks display and igniting some flash points in the Angel clubhouse.

“That was a rough pitch,� Alicea said, referring to DeLucia’s offering. “I don’t know, a fastball to a fastball hitter?�

DeLucia, who has exceeded expectations with 2.20 earned-run average out of the bullpen, said he wanted to throw the pitch on Cruz’s hands.

“I felt like I could freeze him up in there because of the way we had pitched him all day,� DeLucia said. “Everything was away, and I didn’t want to throw it away. I thought for me, that was my pitch. It’s the way I’ve pitched all year. He just beat me today.�

Manager Terry Collins didn’t second-guess the pitch. “He could have hung a curve,� he said, “and then you’d question why he didn’t use his best pitch.�

But Phillips was stewing.

“What makes it tough is we’re not playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played,� said Phillips, whose RBI single in the seventh made it 2-2. “When you don’t do the things you’re supposed to do, it’s not going to work out.�