ANOTHER KNOCK: NOBODY'S HOME ANGELS, PERCIVAL BLOW LEAD IN NINTH TORONTO 6, ANGELS 5.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

TORONTO - Troy Percival was certain his stuff was good enough Wednesday night to quickly close out the Toronto Blue Jays.

Shane Halter was certain he made the right play by intercepting a wayward Jose Guillen throw and whirling toward home to cut down the tying run with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning.

But the dirt area around SkyDome's home plate is quickly turning into the Angels' own twilight zone. As they say in countless sci-fi movie trailers, it is a world where nothing is as it seems.

Vernon Wells touched Percival for a game-tying single and Gregg Zaun beat him with an infield chopper that plated the winning run against a five- man infield as the Blue Jays registered their second consecutive 6-5 come-from-behind victory over the Angels.

Percival suffered his fourth blown save in 16 opportunities and his third in his past six tries, and in all those appearances, he has failed to retire the side in order.

Such sloppiness can open the door for funny endings, which happened Wednesday, much to Percival's amazement.

``I know that's the best stuff I've had in a long time,'' he said. ``I've lost a few games this year. This one, they took.''

And the Angels again were left to shuffle off the field through a flock of celebrating Blue Jays. After catcher Bengie Molina botched a rundown play and enabled Chris Gomez to scamper toward an unoccupied home plate to score the winning run Monday, his decision to vacate his station loomed large again.

With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Reed Johnson dropped a bunt single down the third-base line. Frank Menechino, the biggest hole in the top half of Toronto's lineup, followed with a sharp single to right field.

That brought up Wells, who hit a two-hop shot to Guillen in left. The speedy Johnson never hesitated to run on Guillen's vaunted arm, but Guillen uncorked a throw that sailed up the line.

Halter moved over to cut it off, whirled and threw home hoping to nail Johnson.

One problem. Molina trudged up the line himself thinking he'd need to cut off the throw, and home was left unoccupied.

Johnson scored. The ball bounced wildly past Percival backing up home, and the runners moved up another base. After an intentional walk to Delgado, center fielder Chone Figgins trotted in for extra infield coverage. But Zaun hit a chopper over shortstop David Eckstein's head for the game-winner.

``You've got to go for the win right there,'' Halter said. ``Your closer's in the game. If I could rewind, I might eat it and keep it 5-5. But if I make a throw and Bengie's there, we have a chance. As soon as you wheel and turn, you don't have a second to see if he's there. I tried to save the run.''

Molina, who has not talked to the media in seven weeks, hastily departed the clubhouse before comment could be sought.

Percival's four-hit, two-run performance undid the handiwork of starter Bartolo Colon, who struck out a season-high seven in 6 2/3 innings and seemed to put a rough six-start stretch behind him. Halter's two-run homer and RBI singles by Guillen, Jeff DaVanon and Casey Kotchman in the sixth gave him five runs to work with.

Colon gave up home runs to Wells and Delgado but left with a 5-4 lead that was maintained by relievers Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez.

That got the game where the Angels wanted it, in Percival's hands. Those hands have been shaky of late.

``Right now, for some reason or another, it's not going my way,'' said Percival, stuck on 295 career saves. ``You don't cry about it. You get back up and chuck it. I've hit a few rough stretches in my career. This is one of them.''

Manager Mike Scioscia insists Percival is merely ``off a tick,'' and Percival noted he was consistently between 96-98 mph. That doesn't make his current ninth-inning struggles any easier to stomach.

``He's still one of the best closers in the game,'' Colon said through an interpreter. ``We know what Percy's able to do. We pitchers go through stretches like that, but there's no doubt Percy's the guy here.''

Gabe Lacques, [phone]

gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com

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