Rivalry Has Gotten Too Close for Comfort

When the Angels and A’s get together, you can count on a one-run game or a tension-filled moment or, in Wednesday’s case, both.

It doesn’t matter if it’s only Aug. 2, a day game with the outfield stands filled with packs of camp kids in bright T-shirts. It’s the Angels and the A’s and by now you know that means something.

Maybe ESPN doesn’t give it the Armageddon coverage it bestows other rivalries. Maybe there isn’t bloodshed in the parking lot afterward. But try to find a better combination of intensity and competitive balance.

Their last 50 games tilt ever so slightly in the Angels’ favor, 26-24. You couldn’t find a closer result if you asked 50 guys, “Halle Berry or Angelina Jolie?”

Wednesday’s 3-2 Oakland victory marked the 17th one-run game in their last 33 meetings. And it was the second time this season that an inside pitch to an Oakland hitter led to an angry exchange between the two sides.

“It’s even more heated this year. I don’t know why. It’s really hard to put into words. But you definitely feel it,” Oakland closer Huston Street said.

“It’s funny, I don’t think we hate each other off the field. Off the field everyone seems cordial and friendly. When the first pitch is thrown, guys that were hugging each other off the field are cursing each other.”

Take Oakland’s Jay Payton. He said he has never had any problems with Angels reliever Scot Shields.

But when Payton tried to check his swing on Shields’ second pitch to him in the top of the eighth inning and wound up getting hit on the right hand, Payton started yelling at Shields, before Oakland Manager Ken Macha and third base coach Ron Washington grabbed Payton and guided him to first base before things could escalate into the Jason Kendall-John Lackey wrestling match that went down May 2.

“It was a reaction to feeling like my hand might be broke more than anything else,” said Payton, who acknowledged that he didn’t think Shields was trying to throw at him. “I’m going to be [angry] until I find out it’s not...

“I wasn’t trying to go after anybody or do anything. It looked probably a lot worse than it was.”

It looked like just another episode of Angels-A’s.

“Every time we play them it’s a one-run game,” Shields said. “It’s good hard-fought games. Unfortunately things got out of hand a little bit in the eighth with Payton. But for the most part it’s good, hard-fought baseball. That’s the best thing about our little rivalry we’ve got going on.”

Here’s the bad news for the Angels: they’re 13-15 in one-run games this season.

It’s tough to get the big hits when they’re lacking that additional big bat, and not even their favorite simian seems to help. This turned into a two-movie-clip game, with Rally Monkey scenes from “Jaws” and “Signs” showing on the big screen. (As for that last one, putting Mel Gibson’s face on the board might not be the best way to bring good karma right now.)

But the Angels are 4-41 when trailing after seven innings this season and 1-45 when trailing after eight. One problem is they can’t count on the bullpen to hold the fort until Francisco Rodriguez comes in. Shields took the loss Wednesday, giving up two hits, a walk and a run in the eighth, bringing back memories of the three-run lead he blew Saturday in Boston.

Usually the Angels-A’s rivalry brings out the best in the two sides. Hustle plays, clutch hits or money pitches. I don’t think it was a coincidence that Lackey pitched his best game of the season when he faced Oakland the first time after the incident.

Last year Kendall scored the winning run when Rodriguez dropped a return throw from the catcher. Tuesday night, two Angels scored from second on infield singles. Wednesday, Oakland’s Marco Scutaro scored from second on a dropped third strike and throw to first.

“You’re going to score on that play if you’ve got your intensity level high,” Macha said.

Mike Scioscia’s approach has always been to treat every game the same. But let’s face it, some games are different.

Just the sight of the other uniform seems to bring up the intensity level. These are the two teams who have won the last four division championships. The last two years they’ve decided the division title on the final weekend in Oakland.

Shields said he tries to come in with the regular approach. He doesn’t always leave that way.

“After the fact it kind of hits on you a little more, because you realize they automatically go up a game on you,” Shields said.

That leaves the Angels a game and a half behind the A’s in the standings. But they still play each other seven times in the final 10 games of the season.

The A’s and Angels have yet to meet in the postseason. Of course, for that to happen the A’s would have to win a playoff series, something they haven’t done since 1990.

It will take an October meeting to take this thing up another notch. The biggest Yankees-Red Sox moments have come in the postseason, be it Bucky Dent’s home run in a one-game playoff in 1978 or the historic Red Sox comeback in the seven-game American League championship series in 2004. Same with the most memorable moment between the Giants and Dodgers: Bobby Thomson’s home run.

“These guys have been our biggest rival for the last several years, way before I got here,” said Payton, who came to Oakland last year. “We know to win our division we’re going to have to go through these guys. They know to win our division they’re going to have to go through us.”

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande, go to latimes.com/adandeblog.