Ho Hum: Just Another Big Comeback for Angels

Predictability took a beating Saturday night at Anaheim Stadium.

Or perhaps the unusual has become the norm for the Angels, who erased a five-run deficit en route to a 6-5 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in front of a sellout of 34,922.

Silenced for five innings by a last-minute replacement, the Angels at last awoke when the Brewers turned the game over to their bullpen. Their own bullpen, bolstered by the return of closer Troy Percival, held strong and they extended their winning streak to six games.

The Brewers lost their fifth in a row.

The Angels narrowed a 5-0 deficit with four runs in the sixth inning, then seized the lead with two more in the eighth.

Pinch-hitter Jack Howell delivered a run-scoring double off the right-field fence for the tying run and Darin Erstad knocked in the go-ahead run with a single past shortstop Jose Valentin.

It was the third time in the first six games of this home stand that the Angels have wiped out a five-run deficit.

This time, they needed closure from Percival, who made his first appearance since going on the disabled list April 9. Percival pitched 1 1/3 innings, giving up one hit with one strikeout to earn the victory.

“I’m glad to have him back, I’ll tell you that,” Manager Terry Collins said. “He was all pumped up when he came in after the eighth. I had to let him go out for the ninth.”

Said Percival: “It feels great. I didn’t feel quite like it did in the past. Stretching it out to an inning and a third was a good test for me.”

Percival was told he was throwing in the 95-mph range.

Milwaukee Manager Phil Garner planned to start right-hander Jeff D’Amico, but he had to scratch him when he suffered tightness in his biceps while warming up in the bullpen.

Desperate for a late substitute and apparently out of options, Garner turned for help to Joel Adamson.

But a funny thing happened on the way to a nightmarish evening at Anaheim Stadium for Adamson, a left-hander from Lakewood Artesia High and Cerritos College.

Instead of falling on his face, Adamson looked unflappable for five standout innings. He seemed like a seasoned veteran rather than a guy making his first major league start.

Recalled May 6 from triple-A Tucson, Adamson had pitched only two innings with a 4.50 earned-run average. But he shut out the Angels on two hits for five innings and took full advantage of his teammates’ early-inning run support.

After walking Dave Hollins in the third inning, Adamson retired eight in a row until giving up a single to Jim Edmonds to start the sixth.

The Brewers led, 5-0, by then and seemed to have the game in command. Garner turned the game over to the bullpen and the bullpen turned the game over to the Angels.

Reliever Bob Wickman gave up a run-scoring single to Garret Anderson and a two-run double to Luis Alicea to highlight a four-run sixth for the Angels.

The Angels completed their comeback in the eighth against Mike Fetters.

Meanwhile, the news was not all good for the Angels, who tried a different tack with struggling left-hander Allen Watson.

Much of Watson’s troubles this season have stemmed from poor first innings. So, pitching coach Marcel Lachemann planned to have Watson warm up a bit longer and a bit harder than in the past.

“He was going to warm up a little longer, then sit down, then warm up again,” Collins said before the game.

Didn’t work.

Watson couldn’t overcome another poor start and lasted only 3 2/3 innings, giving up five runs on eight hits.

“If he’s going to be successful, he’s got to have good control,” Collins said. “If he gets ahead, he’ll be better. I’m telling you, this guy is a solid pitcher.”

It didn’t show, and Watson left the Angels with a five-run deficit in the fourth inning.

Milwaukee third baseman Jeff Cirillo scored on a wild pitch in the first inning.

Center fielder Gerald Williams hit a two-run homer in the second, the first of his three hits in the game.

Designated hitter John Jaha crushed a 3-and-2 pitch from Watson some 430 feet to left field for a bases-empty homer in the third.

Williams then scored on Edmonds’ throwing error in the fourth.