SAN DIEGO — The best player in baseball stood with his hands on his hips and his mouth hanging open.
Darin Erstad's face was getting redder and redder. He shuffled his feet, shook his head, and moved closer and closer to the interrogation after Tuesday's game.
Erstad's teammate, Garret Anderson was being thoroughly worked over. What happened on that play, Garret? Why didn't you back up Orlando Palmeiro, Garret? Couldn't you have held Ruben Rivera to a double or triple with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, with the Angels leading the Padres 2-1, with Troy Percival having worked Rivera into an 0-2 hole before Rivera cracked a fastball long and deep?
So, OK, maybe the pitch was ill-advised, one fastball too many. And, OK, maybe Palmeiro, filling in for Tim Salmon in right, could have played the ball better, more conservatively. Maybe Palmeiro shouldn't have run all out and into the wall without making the catch so that the ball bounced in a squiggly pattern back onto the grass.
Yes, those things could have been done better. But it was Anderson who had also seemed in a trance on a similar play against the Dodgers last week, who heard the questions from all around him. Were you slow to react, Garret? Did you see the ball, Garret? Haven't you learned to play center field yet, Garret?
Finally Erstad had heard enough.
"We won the [bleeping] game," Erstad said. "You all are looking for the negatives and we won the [bleeping] game. What's going on here?"
Thank you, Darin.
The best player in baseball cut to the chase. So what if Rivera's deep fly ball off the wall turned into a two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth, game-tying inside-the-park home run. So what if Anderson had not done the best job possible at his position?
What mattered was that the Angels won Tuesday. Beat the Padres 3-2 in 11 innings. Gave up an inside-the-park home run on a badly played ball and just kept on trying until Troy Glaus ended up on third courtesy of another badly handled chance in right field and scored because San Diego's ace reliever, Trevor Hoffman, bounced a pitch past his catcher.
What mattered was that no one got down on himself or anybody else on the team. Hey, Erstad said, Anderson had hit a home run in the fourth inning to tie the score, 1-1. All the negative nellies were forgetting that. Erstad, who holds every at-bat preciously, who hits every ball where he should, who should be required watching by every Little League coach and player in the country every time he steps to the plate, who plays his position with confidence, with verve, with a casual certainty that has come from more hard work than anyone will ever know, would have none of the blame game.
