Thursday, September 12, 2002
Angels 6, Athletics 5
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shawn Wooten was an unlikely hero for the Anaheim Angels in perhaps their most important game so far this season. Wooten, getting a rare start against a right-hander with Troy Glaus sidelined, hit a two-out, two-run double in the seventh inning Wednesday night to give the Angels a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over the Oakland Athletics.
The Angels won for the 12th time in 13 games to move within one game of the A's in the AL West and extend their wild-card lead to six games over Seattle.
“Yeah, I'd say so,” the 30-year-old Wooten with a wide grin said when asked if the hit was the biggest of his career.
“It seemed like a playoff game.”
Oakland lost for just the third time in 26 games despite taking an early 4-0 lead and dropped consecutive games for the first time since Aug. 11-12 — immediately before starting its AL-record 20-game winning streak.
Wooten, who tied a club record with three doubles, hit the first pitch from Jeff Tam (0-1) into the left-field corner to drive in Garret Anderson, who hit a one-out single off Mike Venafro, and Scott Spiezio, who drew a two-out walk off Tam.
“I think I had one other start against a righty this year,” Wooten said. “Unfortunately, Troy got hurt. Someone had to step up. Today it happened to be me. Yesterday it was Spiezio.”
Spiezio, who homered and drove in three runs in Anaheim's 5-2 victory on Tuesday night, played third base and Wooten first in the last two games with Glaus out with a jammed left ring finger. Spiezio normally plays first.
Wooten hit his first two doubles against right-hander Cory Lidle. He had two hits and an RBI on Tuesday night.
Wooten is 26-of-82 this year including 12-for-31 against right-handers. The three-hit game was his second of the season, as was his two-RBI effort.
“Woot's a guy we've talked about trying to get more at-bats,” Scioscia said. “It's a good time for him to step up.”
The Angels and A's play the finale of a four-game series Thursday night, with left-hander Mark Mulder pitching for Oakland.
When asked if Wooten would play, Scioscia smiled and replied: “Uh-huh, good chance of that.”
Scot Shields (4-3), who pitched 2 2-3 hitless innings, earned the victory. Troy Percival, the fourth Angels pitcher, worked the ninth for his 37th save in 41 chances.
“I was running on vapor tonight,” Percival said after pitching for the fourth time in six games. “I feel OK. It's a good position to be in. When I'm up that many times, it means we're playing good baseball.”
The Angels raised their record in one-run games to 27-17 while the A's dropped to 28-10.
Miguel Tejada's RBI single snapped a 4-4 tie in the fifth and chased rookie John Lackey, who had won six of his previous seven starts. The A's didn't have another hit after that.
“Once their bullpen came in, they did a good job and shut us down,” A's manager Art Howe said. “They were able to get a couple off our bullpen, and that was the difference.”
Oakland took its 4-0 lead in the third after the first two batters were retired. Scott Hatteberg singled and scored on a double by Tejada. Eric Chavez followed with an RBI single before Jermaine Dye hit a 3-2 pitch into the left-field bullpen for his 19th homer.
The Angels tied it off Lidle in the fourth on an RBI single by Spiezio, a sacrifice fly by Bengie Molina, a bloop double by Adam Kennedy and a suicide squeeze by David Eckstein.
Lackey allowed seven hits and a career-high five earned runs in 4 1-3 innings. Lidle gave up eight hits and four runs in five innings.
“We're still playing good ball, but we're playing good teams,” Lidle said. “When we started that streak, we weren't playing particularly tough teams.”
A patriotic 20-minute ceremony was held before the game to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
A large American flag was unfurled by local police, fire department and emergency medical technicians over the mound stretching nearly from third to first base while Robbie Britt sang “America the Beautiful.”
A moment of silence was observed at 9:11 p.m., followed by a video presentation.
Notes: Commemorative Sept. 11 T-shirts were given to everyone attending the game, and fans began waving them in unison during the Angels' fourth-inning rally. ... Citing a lack of sufficient evidence, the Orange County district attorney's office said it won't file charges against Angels LHP Jarrod Washburn in an alleged sexual assault case. Washburn (17-5) will take his normal turn, pitching Friday night against Texas. ... Tejada's two hits gave him 187 this season, tying him for the Oakland team record set by Jose Canseco in 1988. The A's moved from Kansas City to Oakland 34 years ago. ... The Angels blew several scoring chances and left 10 runners on base to only three for the A's.
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Angels 6, Athletics 5 
