Angels Drop a Late Lead

They say laughter is good for the soul, so Al Levine tried to find at least a shred of humor in the darkness of a Sunday afternoon on which the reliever dropped the ball--literally--and the Angels dropped a heartbreaker of an interleague game to the San Diego Padres.

After mounting an improbable comeback with four runs off San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman to take the lead in the top of the ninth, the Padres nicked Angel closer Troy Percival for the tying run in the bottom of the ninth and won it, 6-5, when Levine bobbled Eric Owens’ two-out, bases-loaded bunt for an error in the 10th.

“I just lost my chance for the Gold Glove,” Levine said with a grimace. “I took my eye off the ball. That was it. I wanted to throw it before I caught it. I had plenty of time.”

A crowd of 28,941 at Qualcomm Stadium saw the Padres rally in the 10th when Kory DeHaan doubled and took third on Ben Davis’ ground ball to second.

Al Martin was walked intentionally, and Angel Manager Mike Scioscia, in what is becoming a routine strategy in these situations, brought left fielder Darin Erstad to the infield in hopes of cutting off the winning run.

Levine, the unheralded right-hander who has been a huge factor in the bullpen’s success, struck out Kevin Nicholson and walked Ryan Klesko intentionally to load the bases.

Owens, the Padre leadoff batter, then pushed a bunt toward second base. Levine sprung off the mound and was in position to make the play, but the ball popped out of his glove as he looked to throw to first, and the Angels lost for only the second time in eight games, falling five games behind Seattle in the American League West.

“The guys are out there battling, and I make a play like that to cost us the game,” Levine said. “It hurts. . . . But the good thing about this game is there’s always tomorrow.”

Owens, who knocked in the tying run in the ninth, said he opted to bunt when he saw first baseman Scott Spiezio playing deep.

“Actually, it wasn’t quite the bunt I wanted, but it worked out,” Owens said. “When you put pressure on people like that, sometimes they break.”

Scioscia and several Angel players didn’t believe the loss, as gut-wrenching as it was, would be enough to break them.

“They all sting, regardless of how you lose,” said Mo Vaughn, whose two-run homer off Hoffman in the ninth gave the Angels a 5-4 lead. “The thing about this team is we know how to come back. We dropped the first game to Los Angeles [Thursday night] and came back to win the next two. You can’t let it carry over. We’re not machines. We’re not perfect.”

Hoffman has been close. The Padre closer had converted 23 of 26 save opportunities and had a 3.26 earned-run average, but it was the bullet-proof right-hander who needed a life preserver Sunday.

Trailing, 4-1, Adam Kennedy opened the ninth with a double, Erstad singled him to third, and Kevin Stocker lofted a two-run triple to right-center, pulling the Angels to within 4-3. Vaughn then golfed a shin-high changeup over the wall in right for a two-run homer and a 5-4 lead.

“Getting to Hoffman,” Scioscia said, “happens about as often as going 65 mph on the Hollywood Freeway.”

So does getting to Percival when the Angel closer is throwing as he had in his previous five appearances, when he gave up only one hit and saved four games.

But Martin greeted Percival in the bottom of the ninth with a double to right, Nicholson bunted Martin to third, pinch-hitter Klesko walked, and Owens lifted a sacrifice fly to right for a 5-5 tie.

The Angels lost it in the 10th, but just as damaging was their failure to score off Padre starter Adam Eaton despite putting runners on first and second with no outs in the second, a runner on third with no outs in the third and loading the bases with no outs in the fourth.

San Diego scored four in the fourth when Bret Boone, Joe Vitiello and Davis each homered off Angel starter Jarrod Washburn.

“We’ll wake up [today] and realize it’s just one more game in the loss column, no more, no less,” Scioscia said.