Yankees Take Angels Deep

The body was willing, but the mind wasn’t, which was an odd reversal for Angel closer Troy Percival, who went through much of 1999 with his hard-charging, ultra-aggressive approach and a shredded shoulder that refused to cooperate with his brain.

A bone chip that “acted like a meat grinder” surgically removed last October, the partial tears in his rotator cuff and labrum repaired, Percival made his first appearance of 2000 Tuesday night, lighting up the radar gun with his 95-mph fastballs.

But his game plan was too laid back, too tentative, and that proved costly, as the New York Yankees rallied for two runs off Percival in the ninth inning for a 5-3 victory over the Angels before 25,818 in Yankee Stadium West, er, Edison Field.

With a 1-1 count on Paul O’Neil, Percival hung an 84-mph split-fingered fastball over the middle, and O’Neill rifled it to center for a two-out single.

Then, after barely missing the outside corner with two fastballs to the left-handed-hitting Bernie Williams, Percival went outside again with a 2-1 pitch, and Williams sliced an opposite-field home run inside the left-field foul pole for a game-winning two-run homer.

It was the third opposite-field hit of the game for Williams, who doubled and scored the Yankees’ first run in the fourth and knocked in the game-tying run with a double in the seventh, his hits punctuated by chants of “Let’s Go Yankees” in the Angels’ home field. And it was the second mistake in judgment for Percival.

“Mentally, I wasn’t real sharp,” Percival said. “I didn’t move anyone off the plate. I was concentrating more on hitting locations, and that’s not my game. I have to stay more aggressive.”

After going away twice on Williams, Percival said he would almost always try to bust a left-handed hitter inside with the next pitch. Percival’s offspeed and breaking pitches looked sharper in spring training, but he second-guessed his decision to go with one against O’Neill.

“I had a lot of choices in that situation, and that was probably my worst pitch of the night,” Percival said. “I was more upset at that pitch than the one that Bernie hit the homer off.”

Percival entered the game with a 1.14 career earned-run average against the Yankees, giving up three earned runs in 23 2/3 innings. He has tangled with the Yankees often, backing them off the plate so much that some in the New York clubhouse have accused him of head-hunting.

“I’m not what you’d call a pitcher, I’m an aggressive thrower, and I’ve got to get that mind-set back,” Percival said. “When I’m on, no one is going to jump out at the plate. I need to move guys off the plate, because you could see them striding in.”

Mariano Rivera pitched a one-two-three ninth for his second save, and that made a winner of Yankee reliever Ramiro Mendoza. Lost in the defeat was an impressive Angel debut for Kent Bottenfield, who gave up two runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings, striking out five and walking four.

His counterpart, Yankee starter Roger Clemens, wasn’t nearly as impressive but managed to escape allowing no earned runs. He did not escape unscathed, however.

After struggling through what had to be five of the ugliest shutout innings of his career, Clemens seemed to find his groove in the sixth, striking out Garret Anderson and Troy Glaus to open the inning.

Scott Spiezio walked on a full-count pitch, and Bengie Molina followed with a slow roller to third. Clay Bellinger, a last-minute addition to the lineup because of Scott Brosius’ rib-cage injury, threw the ball into a camera well next to the Yankee dugout, putting runners on second and third.

Gary DiSarcina, whose failure to execute a sacrifice bunt in the second inning helped stifle an Angel rally, singled sharply to center, scoring two runs for a 2-2 tie, and he alertly took second on Ricky Ledee’s throw to the plate. Darin Erstad followed with an RBI single to center for a 3-2 lead.

The Angels enjoyed the advantage for about a New York minute. With one out in the top of the seventh, Derek Jeter reached on an infield single off reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa, who had struck out Bellinger with the bases loaded to end the sixth.

O’Neill walked, and Williams slapped a double to left, scoring Jeter to make it 3-3. Tino Martinez was walked intentionally to load the bases, and Angel Manager Mike Scioscia pulled Hasegawa for right-hander Mark Petkovsek, who got Ledee to ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

The Angels loaded the bases with two out in the bottom of the seventh, but Bellinger atoned for his earlier error, charging another Molina dribbler and making a nice off-balance throw to first to end the inning.

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MARTINEZ IS IN TOP FORM

Boston’s Pedro Martinez struck out 11 and held Seattle to only two hits in seven innings of the Red Sox’s 2-0 victory. Page 4

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A DOUBLE PAY

The average cost of a baseball ticket has gone up 11.8%--the highest markup in a decade. Page 4