Change of Pace Good for Angels

TORONTO — The USS Juggernaut didn’t exactly steam past Toronto with its guns ablaze Saturday, but the Angels had more than enough weaponry to sink the punchless Blue Jays, 3-1, before 28,351 in Skydome.

Angel left-hander Allen Watson, whose hold on a rotation spot appeared tenuous after three consecutive shaky outings, rebounded by giving up four hits and no runs in seven innings as the Angels won for the 11th time in 12 games.

The late-inning, set up-and-save tandem of Mike James and Troy Percival succeeded for the first time this season, James pitching the eighth and Percival the ninth, and the Angels eked out just enough offense--and added a dash of good fortune--to win their second in a row on the road.

You know the Angels are on a roll when:

* Toronto right fielder Orlando Merced makes a strong throw home after Jim Edmonds’ first-inning single and appears to have a shot at Tony Phillips, but first baseman Joe Carter inexplicably cuts off the throw.

* Ed Sprague’s vicious first-inning liner with one out and runners on first and third goes right at Angel second baseman Luis Alicea, who snags it for the out.

* Darin Erstad’s third-inning liner caroms off Toronto center fielder Otis Nixon’s leg and rolls about 50 yards into foul territory beyond left field, allowing Erstad to score on an inside-the-park home run.

* Toronto’s Alex Gonzalez is called safe on a fifth-inning play at third, then ruled out when Angel third baseman Dave Hollins, with his left foot, lifts Gonzalez’s foot off the bag just long enough to tag him.

“I don’t know if it’s karma or what, but when things are going right, they’re going right, and when they’re going bad, your hard-hit balls go right at people and theirs don’t,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said.

“Right now we’re catching the breaks. You hear it a million times in this game, that things even out as the season goes along. Well, we were on a two-week road trip [with a 3-8 record] where we couldn’t catch a break.”

After getting 41 runs on 51 hits, including eight home runs, in their previous three games, the Angel offense was reduced to a simmer, managing only nine hits and not scoring after the third inning. Garret Anderson’s hitting streak came to an end at 17 games, though he did contribute a sacrifice fly in the first.

But Watson, who was tagged for 14 runs in his last three games, turned up the heat on his fastball, which reached 92 mph at times, and mixed an effective changeup to keep the Blue Jays off balance. Six outs were on infield popups.

“He took the mound mad, aggressive, out to prove a point,” Collins said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him throw as hard as he did today. He really needed to step it up a notch. That’s the Allen Watson I saw last year, when he dominated my right-handed lineups in Houston.”

Watson, who suffered a slight strain of his left flexor muscle in the seventh inning, threw 102 pitches, about 35 of which were changeups. He had been throwing 10 changeups a game.

“When I knew they were diving in for the off-speed stuff, then I’d come in with the hard stuff,” Watson said. “I really needed this game, and I really needed to help the team out. You’re not going to score 10 runs a game, and when you don’t get a lot of runs, the pitcher needs to pick the team up. That’s what makes a championship team.”

Watson walked two and had no strikeouts, a statistic that didn’t bother him.

“I just let them hit the ball,” he said. “I was throwing like [Atlanta’s Denny] Neagle and [Tom] Glavine. When I try for strikeouts I’m usually wild high. I’ll take a win over a strikeout any time.”

Toronto, the American League’s weakest-hitting team, scored off James in the eighth when Alicea’s potential inning-ending, double-play relay sailed over Erstad’s head at first.

But James struck out Sprague with a runner on second to end the inning, and Percival, in his third game since returning from a shoulder injury, struck out two of three in the ninth for his second save.

“I thought we’d use that formula a lot more than we have this season,” Collins said of James and Percival. “But it’s nice to finally see it.”