All Is Not Lost in Angel Defeat

The Angels lost to Seattle, 4-3, in 10 innings Saturday night, disappointing a Cap Night sellout crowd of 43,752 at Edison Field. But it was one of those losses that didn’t leave too many guys dressed in periwinkle feeling all that blue.

Closer Troy Percival, who worked the Angels out of a two-on, one-out jam in the ninth, yielded a 430-foot bomb to right-center by David Segui in the 10th that spelled defeat. But really, this Saturday night was all right.

Todd Greene slammed his third homer in as many nights, the Angels had chances to win in the ninth and 10th and they went down swinging when Troy Glaus almost came out of his shoes while missing a Jose Mesa fastball with two on in the 10th.

But the upbeat attitude was mostly due to the performance of veteran right-hander Ken Hill.

Apparently, all he needed was a little hitch in his giddy-up.

“Kenny really settled down, that’s the Kenny Hill we know,” Manager Terry Collins said.

Hill changed his motion late last season so he didn’t go over his head during his windup, a move designed to relieve some of the stress on his surgically repaired right elbow. The switch, however, also seemed to remove all feeling of rhythm from his delivery. The Angels suggested he introduce a bit of bounce in his arm motion after he brings his hands together at the outset of his windup.

So Hill added some shake and rattle to his windup and rolled through seven strong innings.

“I felt very comfortable for the first time this year,” Hill said. “Comfortable and confident. I got a little hand motion going and I was able to hit the spots I needed to.”

Hill had given up 11 hits and nine runs while walking 11 in his first two starts and was particularly wild in his last outing against Texas.”

He gave up five hits and three runs while walking three and striking out four Saturday. Hardly Nolan Ryan stuff, but a vast improvement on his shaky start this season and even more impressive because he seemed to get stronger as the game went on. After giving up a run-scoring triple to catcher Dan Wilson in the fourth inning, he didn’t allow another hit, retiring 10 of the last 11 Mariners he faced.

The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the second on a hit by Glaus--his fifth hit in the last seven at-bats--and Matt Walbeck’s run-scoring single to center. The Mariners went ahead, 2-1, in most Mariner-like fashion in the third. Leadoff hitter David Bell singled up the middle and Ken Griffey Jr. turned Hill’s 1-1 delivery into a souvenir for someone in the right-field bleachers.

Seattle expanded its lead in the fourth on a single by Butch Huskey and Wilson’s triple.

The Angels tied the score, 3-3, in the fourth when Greene followed Anderson’s double with a 397-foot shot into the seats in left. The home run extended Greene’s career-best hitting streak to eight games.

Greene, who has spent much of the past two seasons rehabbing his right shoulder and watching the hands of the clock spin away some of the prime hours of his career, is not a player who needs much motivation. His sense of urgency is already piqued, but when Collins decided to pinch hit for him in the ninth inning Wednesday in Oakland, it must have been taken for a slight.

In the three games since, Greene has eight RBIs.

The Angels had an opportunity to win it in the ninth. Greene led off with a walk, Walbeck sacrificed pinch runner Jeff Huson to second. Huson moved to third on Sheets’ groundout to short, but Orlando Palmeiro’s shot up the middle caromed off the mound to second baseman Bell, who threw out Palmeiro at first.

Then Percival, who had worked just two innings in the last eight games, made a mistake to Segui. “I threw one bad fastball,” Percival said. “It was low and in and that’s where he likes it. I was trying to throw it low and outside.”

The Angels were low down but not yet out. Randy Velarde led off the 10th against Mesa with a drive that sent left-fielder Huskey crashing into the wall to make the catch. Darin Erstad singled to right and Salmon followed with a walk, but Mesa struck out Anderson and Glaus to earn his third save.

“We just couldn’t get the hit when we needed it most,” Collins said.