Angels’ 2-1 Victory Is a Great Relief

After Troy Percival and five of his pals in the bullpen banded together to take down one Mike Mussina, Percival put in perspective the difficulty the Angels face in order to win the division title.

“Every day, something has to happen to make you win a ballgame,� Percival said. “At this point, numbers don’t mean jack. Everything’s got to go our way. Figure Seattle plays .500 ball. We have to play six games better than that.�

The Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1, before 22,606 Sunday night at Edison Field and remained six games behind the AL West-leading Mariners, primarily because nearly every time Manager Mike Scioscia pointed to the bullpen door--six times, including his emergency starter--zeros spilled out.

Reliever Al Levine started because of Matt Wise’s sore elbow and pitched four shutout innings. It went similarly from there, reliever after reliever, matchup after matchup, until Percival’s 28th save, a 1-2-3 ninth.

The Angels have won four of their last five, but gained only one game in the standings. That pace won’t get them there. But when Scioscia can run out the middle of his bullpen--Mike Fyhrie, Mark Petkovsek, Mike Holtz and Shigetoshi Hasegawa--and have it out-pitch Mussina (9-14) on one of his better nights, it is possible there is something more out there for the Angels than third place and a pat on the back.

“We know what they’ve been doing for us,� Scioscia said. “They’ve been incredible. We have, what, 19 games? Hopefully, we’re going to get the good pitching effort from some guys. Mussina pitched a tremendous ballgame. For us to get it done, that’s a huge plus.�

In the first five months of the season, the Angels won once when they scored two-or-fewer runs. Now they’ve done it three times in five games.

While Mussina gave up five hits in eight innings and got his usual limp run support, the Angels scored the eventual game-winner in the seventh inning, on Bengie Molina’s one-out double and Adam Kennedy’s single.

Mussina didn’t allow a baserunner until Darin Erstad led off the fourth with a single. Mussina then walked Scott Spiezio, which pushed Erstad into scoring position for Mo Vaughn, whose single to center scored Erstad and gave the Angels a 1-0 lead.

The Orioles, playing without injured Albert Belle, tied the score with a run off Petkovsek in the seventh, an inning they’ll remember for the runner they left at third base.

With one out, a run in and Jerry Hairston at third, Holtz forced Brady Anderson to pop up for the second time in the series.

Hasegawa then got Melvin Mora to pop to first.

Hasegawa pitched the eighth inning, which ended with Brook Fordyce hitting a drive to the right-field warning track.

Hasegawa (9-5) pounded his glove in satisfaction, then handed off to Percival in the ninth.

“We all have bad days,� Percival said at the end of an exceptionally good one. “It’s an absolutely human bullpen and everybody tries to pick everybody else up. Nobody down there is superhuman. Except for Shiggy, maybe.

“It’s fun for us to be down there with guys like that.�

Levine threw 64 pitches. Though he gave up a hit in each of his four innings, the Orioles were hitless in five at-bats with runners in scoring position.

“We all knew we were going to have to battle today,� Levine said. “Good thing we scored two runs.

“We might have extra guys in the ‘pen, but there’s still tomorrow. We have to have guys for tomorrow.�