A Giant, 10-3, Loss for Angels

The Angel bullpen was so depleted after Friday night’s 14-inning loss to the San Diego Padres that starters Chuck Finley and Matt Perisho were asked to report there for possible duty Saturday night against the San Francisco Giants.

Relievers Rich DeLucia and Mike James, both nursing tender elbows, were unavailable, and Manager Terry Collins wanted to avoid using closer Troy Percival, who pitched Thursday and Friday night.

A complete game from starter Allen Watson wasn’t exactly a necessity, “but we need him to give us some innings, no question,” Collins said.

No chance. Not with the way the Giants battered Watson during their 10-3 interleague victory before 27,875 in Anaheim Stadium.

Rich Aurilia hit a grand slam, Jeff Kent and Darryl Hamilton each homered off Watson, and the left-hander who won his last four starts was gone after 3 1/3 innings, his line against the National League West-leading Giants looking like a hacker’s scorecard on a par-three golf course--seven (runs), six (hits), five (walks), six (strikeouts).

“The walks were the problem,” Collins said. “Maybe he was trying to be too perfect, but he obviously didn’t make pitches. He’s been throwing well. I don’t know why all of a sudden he didn’t tonight.”

Watson, traded from the Giants to the Angels last winter for first baseman J.T. Snow, had a history of pitching well against former teammates, going 2-1 against St. Louis as a member of the Giants in 1996.

And he was looking forward to facing the team that knocked him around for eight runs on 11 hits in four innings of a spring training game in March.

But Saturday night’s performance resembled one of Watson’s many Cactus League bombs and seemed like an extension of his last start, which ended abruptly in Kansas City on Monday when the Royals hit two homers and scored four runs off him in the sixth inning.

Watson escaped a two-on, two-out jam Saturday by striking out Stan Javier in the first, but disaster struck in the second when Glenallen Hill doubled and Damon Berryhill and Hamilton each walked with two out.

Aurilia, a light-hitting shortstop who entered the game with one homer and three RBIs, doubled each of those statistics, drilling a grand slam to left for a 4-0 lead. Kent then surpassed Barry Bonds as the Giants’ home run leader with his 13th, a shot to right-center.

After Jim Edmonds’ 12th homer of the season trimmed the lead to 5-1 in the second, Snow, the switch-hitter who entered with a .161 average against left-handers, hit a two-out RBI single from the right side in the third.

Hamilton lined his first home run of the season into the right-field seats to start the fourth, and when Watson walked Aurilia with his 90th pitch, Collins yanked him in favor of Shigetoshi Hasegawa.

“Anybody would have been pumped to face their old team, but I don’t think that was a problem tonight,” Watson (5-4) said. “I just didn’t make pitches and walked too many guys. . . . I just had that one inning where I was out of control, then I throw a strike and they hit a grand slam.”

Kent’s second homer of the night--and 14th of the season--highlighted a three-run sixth for the Giants, but at least Hasegawa got the Angels to the eighth before giving way to Perisho, and the bulk of the Angel bullpen got a much-needed night off.

Rookie Dan Carlson was scheduled to make his first big-league start for the Giants, but Manager Dusty Baker, wanting to save Carlson for long relief, scratched him for Joe Roa, who entered with a spotty 1-4 record.

But the 25-year-old, who was the player to be determined in the Matt Williams trade with Cleveland, turned out to be a Roa constrictor.

The right-hander gave up only two runs on nine hits and struck out four in 5 1/3 innings before being replaced by Rich Rodriguez, who got out of a sixth- inning jam with the help of Snow, whose back-hand diving grab of Garret Anderson’s liner behind first base saved two runs.

Edmonds, Dave Hollins, Tim Salmon and Gary DiSarcina each had two hits for the Angels, who outhit the Giants, 14-10.