Posted 11:38 AM by Sean
The Angels managed to slip past the Rangers last night, 10-6. Ordinarily, that would be a joke, but in this particular instance it really did feel like dodging a bullet.

Kevin Appier threw six solid innings...well, no. He threw five solid innings and one shaky one, surrendering back-to-back shots from Hank Blalock and Alex Rodriguez in the sixth, but otherwise keeping the Rangers off-balance enough to limit them to just two other hits. Appier looked like he was getting some help from home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg, who was regularly calling the outside strike for both teams.

The offense continued to smack around Texas pictching, putting up 13 hits and keeping the game comfortably out of reach until the ninth inning. The Rangers chipped away at what had been a 9-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth until they managed to load the bases with nobody out in the ninth with the score 10-5. Blalock absolutely crushed a Troy Percival fastball a few feet foul, but Percival managed to escape the inning allowing only one of the three inherited runners to score.

The situation was somewhat atypical for Percival - even tough it was technically a save situation, since the tying run was on deck, he's used to coming in to start the ninth to protect a small lead, not in the middle of the ninth with men already on base. But Percival has been something of a different animal since coming off the DL earlier this year. His hip problem has forced him to modify his leg-kick, which initially had people worried that he would lose velocity on his fastball. That hasn't happened - he hit 98 at one point last night - but there does seem to have been a change in his command: it's improved. He gave up a walk on Wednesday in Tampa, but that was the first base on balls Percival has issued since June 11, a stretch of more than 12 innings. For a guy who's got a career walk rate of one every 2 1/3 innings, that's pretty impressive. His efficiency has also improved - since coming off the DL, he's averaging 14.67 pitches per inning, which is well below his career average of 17.5 and, in fact, is lower than any single-season number he's ever posted in that statistic. He's throwing about 4.33 pitches per batter faced, which is right in line with his career average of 4.28, so he's still working hitters the same, he's just getting the ball where he needs it to be when he's deep in the count.

I should also mention that obscured by the Goddamn Road Trip has been the fact that David Eckstein has returned to the leadoff spot and put together a string of nice games. He's hit in five straight games - four of them more than once - and is 11 for his last 20, including a stellar 4-for-5 last night (plus a walk). His July OPS is .820, laughably higher than his season OPS of .658. Good work, David.

Finally, speaking of quiet offensive performances, Garret Anderson is not the only Angel having the best offensive season of his career. Check out Bengie Molina's stats: .283/.310/.445 (.755 OPS), 10 HR, 17 2B. Nothing to make you forget Mike Piazza, sure, or even Mike Lavalliere's best year, but career highs (adjusted for games played so far) in all categories except OBP. And certainly a big improvement on last year, when his OPS of .596 and five home runs made him the only hitter in the Anaheim lineup that pitchers could reasonably expect to be an easy out.

Tonight, the Angels start a wrap-around series with the Oakland A's, who currently sit 5.5 games ahead of them in the A.L. West and wildcard races. The Angels have put themselves in a position of needing at least three of these games to even have a pulse, and may be wandering into a buzzsaw: tonight John Lackey goes against Ted Lilly, who is unquestionably the weakest link in the Oakland rotation, but the next three games will be against rookie studmuffin Rich Hardin (whom you can also read about today at Aaron's Baseball Blog), Tim Hudson, and Barry Zito. That Sunday game, in which Hudson will match up with Ramon Ortiz, should be an absolute barnburner.