Thursday, May 09, 2002
Angels 3, Tigers 2
The Associated Press
ANAHEIM, Calif. — It took 17 games for the restless fans at Edison Field to see Troy Glaus hit a home run. Glaus finally went deep at home Wednesday night, leading off the ninth inning with his third career game-winning homer as the Anaheim Angels beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 for their 10th victory in 12 games.
Glaus greeted Fernando Rodney (0-2) with a drive to left-center field on a 3-2 pitch. Glaus' sixth homer of the season ended a drought of 82 at-bats at home without one since last Sept. 29.
“I was just trying to get a read on what his pitches looked like,” said Glaus, who led the AL in homers two years ago. “After that, I was just trying to put a ball in play and make something happen to get the inning started. He threw a fastball and I was just trying to throw it out there. I didn't know it was out when I hit it.”
One night after Seth Greisinger dueled Anaheim's Jarrod Washburn through seven scoreless innings, Detroit rookie Nate Cornejo was locked in a 2-2 tie with 14-year veteran Kevin Appier through seven before the bullpens took over.
Troy Percival (1-1) earned the victory, striking out the side in the top of the ninth. The Angels' closer has allowed only one earned run in 33 2-3 career innings against Detroit.
Percival couldn't believe it when he was informed that Glaus' homer was his first at home this season in 54 at-bats.
“I didn't know that — but he's always been there for me,” Percival said. “Every time he gets up there, you expect something big out of him because you know what he's capable of. He's a clutch hitter and he never gets rattled.
“Every hitter goes into slumps, especially power hitters like that. They're going to have two or three weeks at a time where they're just not locked in. But I haven't seen any slowdown in him. I always have faith,” Percival said.
Glaus led off the seventh with a double and scored the tying run on Bengie Molina's RBI single.
The Tigers took a 2-1 lead with in the top half when Shane Halter and Wendell Magee both doubled between Glaus and the third-base bag.
“I know that when I come up, Glaus comes in because he doesn't know if I'm going to bunt or not. So I think he might have been in a little bit more on me than he would have been,” Magee said. “If I had seen him playing back and toward the line, I would have bunted on him to get Halter over to third that late in the game.”
Garret Anderson hit his fifth homer in the Angels sixth.
Appier's scoreless streak ended at 17 2-3 innings, the longest by an Angels pitcher since Chuck Finley's 19 1-3 innings in April 1998.
Appier allowed two runs and six hits over seven innings, lowering his ERA to 2.83 in seven starts since being obtained last December from the New York Mets in a trade for Mo Vaughn.
Cornejo allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings and did not walk a batter.
“It was a good matchup between a veteran guy and a rookie,” Detroit catcher Mike Rivera said. “Appier pitched a great game and Cornejo did the same thing. He just made a couple of mistakes when he fell behind Anderson and Molina. We went away from the plan that we had, but those are mistakes that we have to learn from so we don't do it next time.”
Notes: Five of Molina's 18 RBIs have either tied the game or put the Angels in front. ... Detroit 1B and cleanup hitter Dmitri Young, sidelined since April 23 because of a hernia, was not activated from the 15-day disabled list despite being eligible to come off. “Considering the ailment that I have, I would have been lucky to be coming off today,” Young said. “I just have to take my time with it and make sure I don't do anything to rupture it even more and have a further setback. I've never had a hernia before, so I can't put a timetable on it.” ... Tim Salmon's fifth-inning double was the 525th extra-base hit of his career, putting him within one of Brian Downing's Angels record. ... Angels LHP Scott Schoeneweis returned from Scottsdale, Ariz., where his wife, Gabrielle, gave birth to a son Monday.
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Angels 3, Tigers 2
