Sparks Is Flying Again in Victory Over Royals

Sure, it’s still May. Sure, the American League West is there for the taking. Sure, the Angels ought to be a pretty potent outfit by the All-Star break, with Tim Salmon and Gary DiSarcina expected back in the lineup.

But, frankly, the Angels can no longer afford to tread water until their injured stars return, not with the Texas Rangers reeling off five consecutive victories and starting to resemble their defending champion selves.

“It’s dangerous,” Mo Vaughn said before Saturday’s 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals. “We’re talking about waiting for people to come back.

“If we wait too long, we’ll be out of this thing in another two weeks. We might be 10 back, and then it gets really hard.”

The Angels never trailed by more than six games at any point last year, but they awoke Saturday in last place, 5 1/2 games out of first. Yet they played one of their finest games of the season, perhaps emboldened by that sense of urgency.

There was certainly a sense of urgency for Steve Sparks, whom the Angels have considered skipping in the rotation. Sparks, who forced home three runs on hit batters in his previous start, came within two outs of his first major league shutout.

There was urgency too for third baseman Troy Glaus, whom the Angels have considered sending to triple-A Edmonton. Glaus, dropped to eighth in the batting order for the first time this season, hit his first home run in 30 days.

Todd Greene hit a home run too, ending a 0-for-15 skid, and closer Troy Percival earned his 13th save, despite giving up a bases-loaded double to Scott Pose.

“It’s always easy to come in here and talk about Mo and Garret [Anderson] and Darin [Erstad], but you have to have a couple other guys who step it up,” Manager Terry Collins said. “Sparks, this might be the game that gets him going. Maybe this is the big hit that gets Troy going.”

The Angels bumped Sparks back one day before this start, to accommodate Chuck Finley. They have considered bumping him from his next start entirely.

“I used that as kind of motivation, to show them I was worthy of staying in the rotation,” Sparks said. “I’ve kind of had a chip on my shoulder the last few days.”

Sparks won one of his first nine starts this year, failed to pitch more than six innings in seven of them, and carried a heavy 6.04 earned-run average to the mound Saturday. On this night, the zeros went up with a vengeance. Sparks did not give up a hit through 5 1/3 innings, walking two in the first inning and then retiring 14 consecutive batters.

Sparks did not allow a runner past second base until the eighth inning, but the Royals loaded the bases with one out in the ninth. The Angels summoned Percival, and the Royals countered with pinch-hitter Pose.

Pose awaited a fastball from Percival, who had not given up a hit in 9 1/3 innings over 29 days. Percival obliged, and Pose doubled to clear the bases and turn a comfortable 4-0 lead into a 4-3 occasion for suspense. But Percival recorded the final two outs.

Percival, like Vaughn, senses the danger in waiting for injured players to bolster a lineup before the Angels make a move.

“You don’t know when guys are coming back. If you knew they were coming back in two weeks, that’s not a bad philosophy,” Percival said.

“We don’t want to get any more back than we are now. We’ve got the ability and the talent, even with what we’ve got out there now.”

And the urgency? For that, Vaughn said, the Angels cannot afford to wait until the wounded return, or until the All-Star break, whichever comes sooner.

“The sense of urgency has to happen after May hits,” Vaughn said. “You can’t just turn it on and turn it off. You have to have that sense of urgency on an everyday basis.”