Eight Just Enough for Angels

What looked like a leisurely stroll through the park for the Angels on Friday night nearly turned into a mugging, with the tire iron-wielding Toronto Blue Jays coming within one blow of erasing an eight-run, eighth-inning deficit.

Angel closer Troy Percival looked in need of smelling salts after Carlos Delgado belted him with a roundhouse of a two-run home run and the Blue Jays put runners on first and third with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

But Percival came to his senses just soon enough to retire pinch-hitter Tony Fernandez on a lazy fly ball to left to finish the Angels’ 8-7 victory before a crowd of 30,484 in Edison Field.

“I don’t care how many runs I give up,” Percival said, “as long as it stops before the tying run scores.”

The Angels won for the 18th time in 25 games and remained five games behind red-hot Oakland in the American League wild-card race, but not before surviving a major scare.

Scott Schoeneweis (9-8) blanked the Blue Jays for seven innings before tiring in the eighth, when he gave up Shannon Stewart’s single, Delgado’s RBI double and Raul Mondesi’s two-run home run, which cut the lead to 8-3.

Alberto Castillo singled off reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa to open the ninth and scored on Alex Gonzalez’s two-out RBI single. Gonzalez took second without a throw, and Stewart hit a ground-rule double to left, scoring Gonzalez to pull the Blue Jays to within 8-5.

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia summoned Percival, who grooved a 95-mph fastball that Delgado pulverized, lining it deep into the right-field seats to make it 8-7. It was only the second home run Percival has allowed in 45 1/3 innings this season.

“I made a [bad] pitch to Delgado,” Percival said. “It was belt-middle, and he took it deep.”

Percival got ahead of Mondesi, 0-2, before throwing four straight balls, walking him with a full-count curve. Mondesi stole second and Percival walked Brad Fullmer, with Mondesi stealing third as ball four was delivered.

Fernandez then flied to left on an 0-1 pitch, and Percival had his 32nd save, though the right-hander has seemed more flammable than flame-retardant in recent weeks.

Percival had a 0.84 earned-run average in 31 games before the All-Star break. In 14 games since, he has a 7.43 ERA, giving up 11 earned runs in 13 1/3 innings and watching his ERA jump to 2.78. Remarkably, he is 11 for 12 in save opportunities during this span.

“Right now, I’ve really been struggling to make quality pitches on the far side of the plate with my fastball,” Percival said. “My breaking ball feels good in the bullpen; I’m just not using it in the game. I have to get back to throwing it more.”

Percival said he was “more tired” Friday than he’s been in the past two or three weeks, but Scioscia said he doesn’t think fatigue has been a factor in Percival’s struggles.

“Any pitcher has natural wear and tear,” Scioscia said. “His stuff looks good. His fastball command is sharp. Maybe his curve is not as fresh as it was earlier in the season, but I don’t see any indication Percy is not going to have a strong finish for us.

“He gave up a two-run homer to Delgado. I didn’t say, ‘Oh my gosh, what happened?’ It was a good pitcher against a good hitter, Percy challenged the guy, and he hit it. His first 25 games or so, he was incredible, and it spoils you. But no matter how good you are, you’re going to give up runs.”

Lucky for Percival, he had a huge cushion to work with, because the Angels pounded Blue Jay rookie Brandon Lyon for six runs on seven hits in 2 1/3 innings, spoiling the right-hander’s 22nd birthday and his second big league start.

The Angels scored twice in each of the first three innings, with Scott Spiezio and Tim Salmon providing RBI singles in the first, Darin Erstad (RBI single) and Troy Glaus (sacrifice fly) knocking in runs in the second, and Adam Kennedy (sacrifice fly) and Bengie Molina (RBI single) driving in runs in the third.

Glaus hit his 31st homer of the season in the fourth, and David Eckstein added a two-out RBI double in the fifth for an 8-0 lead. That turned out to be the Angels’ winning run.

“I didn’t envision Percy having to close this one out,” Scioscia said. “But he got it done.”