Angels Get Drop on Athletics

OAKLAND —  Last Sunday in Toronto the Angels lost a game when a routine fly ball dropped between right fielder Tim Salmon and center fielder Jim Edmonds for a gift triple.

Wednesday night in Oakland, the Angels were on the receiving end of a charitable donation when Athletics right fielder Geronimo Berroa dropped a fly ball in the top of the ninth, aiding a five-run rally that lifted the Angels to a wild 14-10 victory before 8,148 in the Oakland Coliseum.

The teams combined for 24 runs, 29 hits and six home runs, including two by Oakland slugger Mark McGwire. The lead changed hands six times, and nine pitchers were used.

But the Angels would not have ended their losing streak at three games if not for two botched defensive plays by the A’s, which only embellished Oakland’s reputation as having the worst defensive outfield in baseball.

Trailing, 10-9, Darin Erstad singled off reliever Mike Mohler to open the ninth, and Dave Hollins followed with a broken-bat, RBI double down the left-field line to score Erstad with the tying run.

Edmonds popped out on a bunt, Salmon was intentionally walked, and Garret Anderson popped to short for the second out.

Jim Leyritz greeted reliever Dane Johnson with a fly ball to right-center field, but it clanked off Berroa’s glove for an error, allowing two runs to score for a 12-10 Angel lead.

The Angels then poured it on, as Luis Alicea, Gary DiSarcina and Tony Phillips singled, the latter two knocking in runs for a 14-10 lead.

Closer Troy Percival, who retired Jose Canseco to end the eighth inning, gave up singles to McGwire and Berroa to open the ninth but struck out Scott Spiezio and George Williams and got Dave Magadan on a groundout to end the game and earn the victory.

The Angels had taken a 9-6 lead with a four-run, seventh-inning rally highlighted by Edmonds’ RBI single and Anderson’s three-run double, which should have been a two-run single but was badly misplayed by Canseco.

But Jason Giambi drilled reliever Pep Harris’ first pitch of the seventh for a home run, and Patrick Lennon stunned them with a three-run double in the bottom of the eighth to put the A’s in front, 10-9.

Magadan started the rally with a two-out walk against Mike James, and pinch-hitter Matt Stairs followed with a single to left. Damon Mashore reached on an infield single, and Angel Manager Terry Collins summoned Mike Holtz, the left-hander with a 1.26 earned-run average, to pitch to Giambi.

Oakland Manager Art Howe countered with Lennon, who had spent virtually all of his 11 professional seasons in the minor leagues, and Lennon lined a Holtz pitch into the right-field corner for a bases-clearing double.

Oakland had gone ahead, 6-5, in the fifth on McGwire’s fifth-inning home run, his second of the game, fifth in four games and 19th of the season, before the Angels’ four-run outburst in the seventh.

Key to the Angel rally was Edmonds’ bases-loaded grounder, which Spiezio made a diving stop of up the middle but couldn’t get the ball out of his glove in time to force Erstad at first, as the Angels tied it, 6-6.

One out later, Anderson flared a hit to shallow left field. Canseco charged hard and attempted a sliding catch, but he was a good yard away from the ball, which bounced past him, allowing three runs to score.

Angel starter Dennis Springer had given up only five runs on 14 hits in 21 1/3 innings in his last three appearances, all wins. But the knuckleballer was tagged for as many runs in the first four innings Wednesday night as he was in his last three games combined.

Fortunately for Springer, an Angel offense that batted .155 (15 for 97) and scored five runs in the previous three games sprang to life.