Angels’ Percival Learning His Limits

ANAHEIM — Lost among the 26 runs and 31 hits Thursday night was one important pitching stat.

Troy Percival sat out the Angels’ 14-12 loss to the Chicago White Sox. He did not throw one pitch, in the game or in the bullpen. He took another day off and got another day stronger.

If the Angels are going to catch the suddenly improved Seattle Mariners, they need Percival, rested and ready. They need him ending games pumping his fist, not sitting with pitching coach Marcel Lachemann having a heart-to-heart talk.

In the past week, Percival has left too many openings to qualify as a closer. He blew one save, and nearly two others.

The disease was simple. Fatigue. Percival appeared in four games in four days, including both ends of a doubleheader last Friday.

The cure. Ah, that is going to be hard. A little honesty.

When last used, Percival was left sitting in the dugout with Lachemann in Cleveland on Monday. It was a talk that couldn’t wait until the clubhouse.

“I needed to tell him that he shouldn’t try to be Superman,” Lachemann said. “He should only try to do what he is capable of doing.”

Percival is capable of plenty, yet sometimes tries to do too much.

“I was trying to do more than my body would allow,” Percival said.

Percival has rarely set such limits. Yet may have learned to do so after giving up six runs in his last 2 1/3 innings.

“It had to do more with fatigue than anything,” Percival said. “I pitched six times in 3 1/2 days and I am not strong enough to do that.

“In Cleveland, I knew I was fatigued. I should have said, ‘Yeah, I can go in, but I’m not going to be at my best.’ I didn’t do that.”

Percival saved 36 games in 1996 and 14 this season despite spending more than a month on the disabled list because of nerve damage in his right shoulder.

The Mariners can now match that. They acquired two closers Thursday, Heathcliff Slocumb from the Boston Red Sox and Mike Timlin from the Toronto Blue Jays. Both had 31 saves last season.

“Seattle improved themselves, didn’t they?” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “It doesn’t really matter what Seattle does, we’re right there. We’re not four or five games behind and we don’t have to catch up. We just have to win the games we can win.”

And Percival will need to pitch in only the games in which he can pitch. That wasn’t always the case last week.

“He said he felt good today,” Collins said before Thursday’s game.

“He always says he’s ready and he always wants the ball.”

But Percival has learned to just say no. Possibly.

“I look at it this way, I had three bad days in the big leagues,” Percival said. “There’s no one in this clubhouse who can’t say that.”