Percival Is Mortal After All

He has been hailed as the next great closer in the major leagues. Untouchable in the ninth inning. Unflappable in tense confrontations. Able to render a future Hall of Famer expendable.

It was happening again Sunday at Anaheim Stadium. Troy Percival smoked two fastballs past Albert Belle to start the ninth inning, then moved in for the kill.

Belle swung hard, connected and sent the ball rocketing over the center-field fence. Quickly, a 1-1 tie was broken and Percival’s invincible aura crushed.

With two outs, Sandy Alomar and Jim Thome followed with homers and soon enough the Cleveland Indians had a 4-1 victory over Percival and the Angels.

It was Percival’s first loss, his first runs allowed, his first humbling experience on the mound in 1996. Until Sunday, he had been nearly flawless in eclipsing Lee Smith, baseball’s all-time saves leader with 471, as the Angels’ top reliever.

Percival knew he wouldn’t be perfect forever, and he vowed to cope with his defeat, to learn from it.

“I let my confidence get to me,” said Percival, who gave up his first runs in 15 2/3 innings. “I tried to throw it past [Belle]. The guy has got tremendous strength. You’ve got to be smart sometimes and let your confidence go down.

“My biggest problem was that I didn’t use my head. I didn’t throw to locations.

“I’ve got to learn from this. They come after me again sometime and it’s going to be a different ballgame.”

Percival put the 0-and-2 fastball to Belle where few hitters could get it. But Belle, who led the majors with 50 homers last year, somehow managed to catch up to the pitch and belt it out for his 14th this season.

“He just got him,” catcher Jorge Fabregas said. “It was up and it had a little juice on it. Thome hit a ball up too. Alomar was cheating [by looking for an inside fastball]. You’ve got to give him credit; he hit the inside pitch.

“[Percival’s] location was a little shaky today. It wasn’t his best, but those are some good hitters. They hit the mistakes. That’s why they’re the [American League] champions.”

It’s also probably why so many among the announced crowd of 22,768 seemed to be rooting for the Indians. Belle’s homer, in particular, set off thunderous cheers, the kind you might expect to hear after a Percival strikeout in the ninth.

That rubbed first baseman J.T. Snow the wrong way. Growing up in Orange County as an Angel fan, Snow has seen the bandwagons for the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox come to Anaheim Stadium. But the Indians?

“I didn’t see them here a couple of years ago,” Snow said. “I guess when a team wins, a lot of people come out of the woodwork. A guy hits a home run or something and it feels like you’re in a visiting ballpark. It’s frustrating.”

Said Percival: “We’ve got about 15,000 good, die-hard fans. When you get 30,000 out there, you know half of them are going to be rooting for the other team.”

Until the ninth, there wasn’t much for fans of either club to scream about. Until the fourth inning, Angel starter Jim Abbott and Cleveland’s Orel Hershiser waged a pitching duel.

After the Angels’ 13-8 victory Friday and the Indians’ 6-5 win Saturday, Sunday’s early innings seemed like an aberration.

It didn’t last long, though. Belle’s run-scoring single in the fourth off Abbott gave Cleveland a 1-0 lead. Jim Edmonds’ bases-empty homer off Hershiser tied it in the bottom of the fourth.

Abbott, winless in 10 games at Anaheim Stadium since he was acquired from the Chicago White Sox last July 27, faltered in the sixth. But reliever Mark Eichhorn struck out Manny Ramirez to bail the Angels out of a bases-loaded jam.

Hershiser and relievers Jim Poole and Jose Mesa silenced the Angels the rest of the way. Mesa earned his 14th save, tops in the majors.

Later, Percival ran his right hand threw his hair, grown a bit since his promise not to cut it until he gave up his first earned run.

“And it will get cut,” Percival said.

When? “Oh, I’ll get around to it,” he said.