Angels are given a pass this time

Instead, a day later, on a different coast against a different team, the same haunting nightmare caught up with them.

Again, they blew a five-run lead.

Again, they couldn't hold on to the ball.

Again, unearned run after unearned run crossed the plate against them.

But this time, they woke up in time to avert disaster. This time, they pulled off a rally of their own at Angel Stadium on Monday night after the Baltimore Orioles had scored four unearned runs against them in the ninth inning to tie the score, 5-5.

On a full-count pitch with two out and the bases loaded, Orioles reliever George Sherrill threw ball four to Chone Figgins to force in the winning run, giving the Angels a 6-5 victory.

"I think the pressure was on [Sherrill]," Figgins said. "In that situation, he has to keep the ball in the zone and come to me."

On Sunday against the Yankees, the Angels had committed four errors and surrendered a franchise-record-tying 10 unearned runs in losing, 14-9.

They made only one error Monday night, but it was costly.

Until then, victory had seemed inevitable. Although reliever Scot Shields had given up two singles in the ninth, there were two out when Manager Mike Scioscia went to his ace reliever, Francisco Rodriguez, with the cushion of a 5-1 lead.

The first batter Rodriguez faced was Brian Roberts, who hit a grounder to first for what could have been the last out. There stood first baseman Mark Teixeira, a two-time Gold Glove winner obtained last week from the Atlanta Braves in a trade for Casey Kotchman and a minor leaguer.

Teixeira, who had been enjoying an impressive debut before the hometown crowd up to that point, booted the ball to give life to the Orioles.

Nick Markakis followed with a two-run single, Melvin Mora hit a two-run double and, just like that, what appeared to be Rodriguez's major league-leading 46th save turned into his fourth blown save. He got the win, though, his record improving to 1-2. Sherrill fell to 3-5.

Teixeira had given the home crowd something to cheer about Monday even before he came to bat, spearing a high hopper off the bat of Aubrey Huff with two out and a man aboard in the first inning and deftly tapping the bag with one foot as he tumbled across the foul line.