Angels Get Gift in 13th

Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina was redeemed in the strangest way Monday night when Randy Velarde’s grounder to short took a wild hop over Ozzie Guillen’s head and scored Tim Salmon in the bottom of the 13th inning to lift the Angels to a 9-8 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

What was left of an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 17,836 saw Salmon open the 13th with a double to left-center off White Sox reliever Kirk McCaskill, and Orlando Palmeiro, who had pinch-run for designated hitter Chili Davis in the ninth, was intentionally walked.

After fouling off two bunt attempts, J.T. Snow grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, and Tim Wallach was intentionally walked. But Velarde’s chopper tipped off Guillen’s glove and into center field, and suddenly DiSarcina’s two seventh-inning errors, which led to three unearned runs and helped Chicago overcome an early five-run deficit, didn’t seem to hurt as much.

Velarde’s hit made a winner of Angel reliever Ryan Hancock (2-0), who retired six of the seven batters he faced in the 12th and 13th.

The Angels trailed, 8-7, in the bottom of the 10th, but Don Slaught’s soft single to right off Chicago closer Roberto Hernandez scored Velarde to tie the game, 8-8. It was Hernandez’s third blown save opportunity in 23 attempts.

Velarde had walked to lead off the 10th, took second on DiSarcina’s groundout and third on Darin Erstad’s groundout, the first time the White Sox retired the rookie center fielder, who had three hits, including his first major league homer in the third inning, and three runs batted in.

Slaught then lofted a single out of the reach of second baseman Ray Durham, and the Angels were back in it despite a catastrophic seventh, when two errors by DiSarcina, the normally sure-handed shortstop, led to three unearned runs--all coming on Tony Phillips’ home run--as the White Sox trimmed a 6-2 deficit to 6-5.

Davis homered to left off Matt Karchner in the seventh for a 7-5 lead, the Angels had set-up man Mike James, he of the 1.55 earned run average, on the mound in the eighth and Percival preparing for the ninth.

But James, who got the always-dangerous Frank Thomas to ground out to end the seventh, gave up Harold Baines’ double to open the eighth. Robin Ventura then followed with a two-run homer to center, tying the game, 7-7. It was the first homer James had given up since May 18, a span of 12 innings.

The White Sox rally ended Angel starter Shawn Boskie’s bid for his eighth victory, a feat the right-hander has never accomplished in his major league career but seemed destined to reach Monday night.

Boskie cruised through the first five innings, retiring 14 in a row after Ventura’s first-inning sacrifice fly, and he was still in good shape after Phillips singled and Thomas doubled in the sixth to cut the lead to 6-2.

But DiSarcina, who in 593 previous major league games had made more than one error only once--against Texas on Sept. 19, 1991--committed two errors in the seventh.

Danny Tartabull opened the inning with a grounder to DiSarcina’s right, but the ball squirted under his glove. After Ron Karkovice struck out and Durham popped out, Guillen hit a liner to short that nicked off DiSarcina’s glove for another error.

Phillips, the Angel lead-off batter in 1995 who was not re-signed over the winter, then tormented his former teammates with a three-run homer to right- center field, bringing an end to Boskie’s evening.

It was a bittersweet evening for DiSarcina, whose offensive exploits helped stake the Angels to what appeared to be a comfortable lead off starter Alex Fernandez.

Fernandez had dominated the Angels this season, going 2-0 with a 2.81 ERA and 16 strikeouts in two starts, but the right-hander gave up more earned runs (six) in the first four innings Monday night than he had in his last 21 innings (five) against the Angels.

DiSarcina singled with one out in the third, and Erstad belted a high fastball into the right-center field bleachers for his first big league home run and a 2-1 Angel lead.

DiSarcina, who had one RBI in his previous 10 games, and Erstad then keyed the Angels’ four-run fourth, DiSarcina following Wallach’s double and Velarde’s walk with a two-run double to right-center, and Erstad smashing an RBI single to center to score DiSarcina. Garret Anderson blooped a single to right, scoring Erstad to make it 6-1.