BULLPEN COMMITTEE BEATS ORIOLES ANGELS 2, BALTIMORE 1.

Byline: Gordon Verrell Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - The Angels ganged up on Baltimore's Mike Mussina on Sunday night at Edison Field and they came away 2-1 winners.

While Mussina went the distance for the Orioles, Angels manager Mike Scioscia should have been logging frequent-flyer miles with his many trips to the mound.

When September rolled around and big-league teams were allowed to expand their rosters, the Angels hung out a standing-room-only sign in the bullpen. They've got an 11-man bullpen these days, and six of them went to work against the Orioles - even the starter, Al Levine.

To some, that might seem like a panic situation. But not to Angels second baseman Adam Kennedy, who singled home Bengie Molina from second in the seventh inning to break a 1-1 tie.

``I didn't feel any urgency, any panic,'' Kennedy said. `'Our bullpen has been doing it all year. This was another great job.''

Levine was pressed into a starting assignment when Matt Wise felt a tweak in his right elbow and it was decided he'd miss a start.

So, Levine hurled four scoreless innings, then Mike Fyhrie pitched a scoreless inning, then Mark Petkovsek worked 1 1/3 innings, allowing the only Orioles' run, then it was Mike Holtz getting a critical out in the seventh, then Shigotoshi Hasegawa and Troy Percival finished up.

By the time Scioscia got done waving pitchers in from the bullpen he had to ice his arm.

``These guys have been incredible,'' Scioscia said of his bullpen. ``Mussina pitched a terrific game. And for us to get it done with five pitchers . . . six pitchers? . . . I lost count. . . .

Hasegawa emerged with the win, his eighth in 13 decisions. He's the winningest pitcher on the Angels' staff.

Mussina should be the Orioles' winningest. Instead, at 9-14, he's their losingest.

The Orioles' bats turn to balsa every time he takes the mound, it seems. In his 31 starts this season, the Orioles have scored 103 runs, or a shade over three a game. In games he doesn't pitch, they're averaging nearly 5 1/2 runs a games.

Sunday was Mussina's sixth complete game, one off the American League lead. Yet, remarkably, four of them have resulted in losses.

Mussina retired the first nine Angels, then was jolted for a double by Darin Erstad leading off the fourth. Scott Spiezio walked, then Mo Vaughn, with only one hit his first eight at-bats of the series, shot a single to center that scored Erstad for a 1-0 lead.

The Angels, with their tag-team bullpen, blanked the Orioles until the seventh. Against Petkovsek, Mark Lewis singled to center, Jerry Hairston doubled to left and Eugene Kingsale grounded out, scoring Lewis with the tying run. It also sent Hairston to third with only one out.

Once more, Scioscia popped out of the dugout, and he summoned Holtz, pitcher No. 4, to face Brady Anderson. In a similar situation Friday night, a game the Angels won 2-1, Holtz got Anderson to pop out to second. Same thing Sunday. Two outs. Then in came Hasegawa and he got Melvin Mora on a popup to Vaughn at first to keep the score tied 1-1.

In the bottom of the seventh, Molina, swinging at Mussina's first pitch, stroked a one-out double to right-center.

``I was just looking for a pitch to hit, no matter what it was,'' he said.

Next was Kennedy, who singled to left-center, and Molina was able to beat the throw home for a 2-1 lead.

Hasegawa came back for a scoreless eighth, then Percival, who two nights earlier finished his 40th game to guarantee his $3.4 million salary for 2001, sealed the win in the ninth with his 28th save.

It was the Angels' 52nd one-run game, the most in baseball, and they've won 30 of them. They're also 7-4 against the Orioles, clinching the season series for the first time in 11 years.

The win, before an Edison Field crowd of 22,606 - which left the Angels only 81,856 short of their 17th season topping 2 million in attendance - kept them within six games in the American League West and AL wild-card races.

It also prompted Molina, the rookie catcher, to come up with a spinoff on one of the game's oldest cliches.

Noting the many pitchers called on by Scioscia, Molina cracked, ``We're thinking one inning at a time.''

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Photo:

The Orioles' Chris Richard steals second base as Angels shortstop Kevin Stocker applies a late tag in the second inning.

John Hayes/Associated Press