Indians Make Fast Work of Angels’ Percival Again

CLEVELAND —  Angel closer Troy Percival is so powerful he once threw a fastball through the wire-mesh backstop in Jacobs Field, putting a hole in a supposedly impenetrable screen about 130 feet from the mound.

If only he had the same effect on Indian bats.

Percival, in what has become an all-too-familiar scene for the right-hander, gave up another game-winning home run to the Indians, this one a three-run shot by Jim Thome in the 10th inning Friday that gave Cleveland an 8-5 victory in the Indians’ home opener.

Thome brought a sellout crowd of 42,707 to its feet when he went the opposite way with a two-out, thigh-high, outside fastball, lining it over the 19-foot wall in left to deal Percival another sudden-death defeat and render two Angel comebacks moot.

Percival may be one of baseball’s best closers, but the Indians have battered him around like a pinata the last two years, tagging him for seven of the 21 home runs Percival has given up.

Percival has an 8-10 record, 2.55 earned-run average and 68 saves in a little more than three seasons; he is 0-4 with a 7.31 ERA and two saves against the Indians.

“It’s not that team beating me--I do it to myself,” Percival said. “I have to use my head more. They’re one of the best offensive teams in baseball, and if you don’t use your head they’re going to beat you. I’ve been too pumped up against them and gotten too many fastballs up.”

Thome said the Indians have been “very fortunate” to beat Percival so many times, but when asked if he knew the reason for Cleveland’s dominance, he said, “I can’t explain it.”

Percival can.

“I’m not scared to pitch to anyone, and I’m not scared to throw a fastball to anyone, but I’ve got to have better location,” he said. “I’m not going to get a fastball by that guy up in the zone. If that pitch was down in the zone, I probably would have gotten a ground ball with it.

“He got way too comfortable with me throwing the ball outside. I was stupid. You can’t let that guy beat you with a right-handed hitter on deck. He’s a good hitter, but I threw him a very bad pitch.”

As he does after every loss or blown save, Percival sat at his locker in the Angel clubhouse when reporters entered, and he answered every question patiently. It’s almost as if this is part of the cleansing process for the pitcher, a way to flush the frustration out of his system.

But as much as Percival beat himself up over the loss, this one could not be pinned entirely on the Angel closer. The Angels left 11 men on base--Carlos Garcia stranded seven in the first five innings alone--and they twice failed to score a runner from third with fewer than two out.

The Angels erased a 4-1 deficit with three runs in the fifth, which included Jim Edmonds’ RBI single, Cecil Fielder’s RBI double and a key error by center fielder Kenny Lofton, which allowed Tim Salmon to score.

Cleveland took a 5-4 lead on David Justice’s single off reliever Mike Holtz in the seventh, but the Angels rallied in the top of the ninth, which began with Dave Hollins letting a 0-and-2 slider from Mike Jackson hit him on the right knee.

Salmon, who popped to short with Darin Erstad on third and one out in the third inning, struck out, and Edmonds doubled Hollins to third. But Fielder, with the infield back and conceding a run, tapped back to the mound.

Hollins was tagged out in a rundown between third and home, leaving runners on first and third with two out. Garret Anderson’s single to right, on a 0-and-2 pitch, made the score 5-5, but had Fielder knocked in Hollins, Anderson’s hit would have scored the go-ahead run.

Jackson struck out Norberto Martin with runners on first and third to end the ninth, and Eric Plunk pitched a scoreless 10th to gain the victory.

“Rod [Carew, Angel batting instructor] talks until he’s blue in the face about situational hitting, but we’re just not getting it done right now,” Manager Terry Collins said. “We didn’t have enough clutch hits. When you play good teams and have a chance to beat them, you have to get it done, because they’re not going to give you many chances.”