Bielecki Does Everything but Complete 7-1 Victory

OAKLAND — Mike Bielecki didn’t put up much of a fight when it was time to go Sunday.

He winked at Chuck Hernandez, Angel pitching coach, and made a wisecrack about needing to meet the shutout clause in his contract.

Bielecki could laugh and joke because the Angels had a seven-run lead en route to a 7-1 victory over Oakland before a paid 17,415 at the Oakland Coliseum. So what if he couldn’t finish, couldn’t polish off the Athletics?

He had taken the ball, walked to the mound and given the Angels his best performance of the season.

In the end, he said he didn’t much care about turning the game over to reliever Troy Percival to start the ninth inning. The Angels won and that’s all that mattered to Bielecki.

When Manager Marcel Lachemann decided enough was enough, Bielecki quickly took a seat in the dugout. Percival lost the shutout, giving up Oakland’s only run, but that didn’t seem to faze Bielecki either.

“He’s an old pro and likes being involved in a pennant race and the whole bit,” Lachemann said.

Maybe it also was because he snapped a two-game losing streak and won for only the second time in six starts. Or maybe it was because he was pitching in a free-agent tryout camp in Homestead, Fla., when the Angels signed him during spring training.

“I don’t know where we found him--down there at Camp Snoopy or whatever it was,” left-hander Chuck Finley said a few days ago.

Bielecki, 35, is simply happy to be still pitching in the major leagues, and for a winner.

The Angels needed a boost after blowing a ninth-inning lead to the A’s Friday and falling flat in Saturday’s 5-1 loss, and Bielecki came through.

In eight innings, he gave up only a first-inning single to Geronimo Berroa and a fifth-inning single to Brent Gates. He did not allow a runner past first base and seemed to be zeroing in on his first complete game since 1992.

He also gave up only two walks and had nine strikeouts, one short of his career high of 10, set in 1989.

“Mike really picked us up today,” shortstop Gary DiSarcina said.

Said Lachemann: “That was very, very big to come out and pitch like he did. It was something we really needed.”

A loss Sunday would have given the Angels a 3-7 record on their 10-game trip to Oakland, Texas and Seattle. The victory, coupled with Texas’ 4-3 loss to Seattle, pulled the Angels into a first-place tie with the Rangers in the American League West.

It was a strange, unpredictable trip.

Finley pitched a complete game, but lost, 3-2, to Seattle’s Randy Johnson, who had 15 strikeouts.

Jim Edmonds extended his hitting streak to 23 consecutive games, the second-longest streak in club history, before it ended.

Tim Salmon went 10 for 13 with three home runs and six runs batted in during three games at Texas. The Angels lost two of three to the Rangers.

Lee Smith’s streak of earning a save in 19 consecutive games, a major league record, ended when he gave up three runs in the ninth inning of a 9-8 loss at Texas.

The Angels scored 11 runs in the first inning en route to a 20-4 victory, their lone win over the Rangers.

Smith blew his second consecutive save opportunity when Oakland’s Mark McGwire hit a two-out, ninth-inning grand slam.

The Angels had four players picked for the All-Star game.

And Bielecki dominated the A’s on Sunday.

It didn’t figure. His past two starts gave no indication that he would be so strong for so long Sunday. Texas defeated him, 10-6, last Tuesday when he lasted only 4 1/3 innings. He gave up four runs and four hits in six innings in a 6-3 loss to Kansas City June 21 at Anaheim Stadium.

“I got back to basics,” said Bielecki, 4-5 with a 4.57 earned-run average. “In my last start, I was trying to be too fine. I didn’t have a great fastball, but I located it well [Sunday]. After a three- or four-run lead it’s easier to settle down and throw the ball over the plate.”

The Angels built a 3-0 lead before Bielecki threw his first pitch. Edmonds’ two-run homer in the first inning gave the Angels all the runs they would need. They led, 7-0, in the seventh, but Bielecki began to tire.

“I would have liked to have gone out there [for the ninth],” he said. “Sure I would have liked a shutout, but I could have given up four runs.”