Gross Fills In for Angels

The plan going into Friday night was for Angel pitcher Kevin Gross to make one start, for Jim Edmonds to play first base, and for Tim Salmon to take another day off to recover from a vicious stomach virus.

The Angels made a mess of those best-laid plans . . . and Manager Terry Collins loved it.

Gross pitched so well in the Angels’ 5-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics before 19,503 at Anaheim Stadium that Collins said the veteran right-hander, recalled Friday after making two starts for triple-A Vancouver, will remain in the rotation.

Salmon, who watched Thursday night’s game from his family-room sofa, blasted a three-run home run in the first inning. Last-minute replacement first baseman Jack Howell had two hits and two runs.

And Garret Anderson, moving from left field to center to spell Edmonds, made his best defensive play of the season, robbing George Williams of a two-run homer in the fourth inning and turning it into a double play.

“This was a big outing, considering how many people have been injured or sick,” Collins said. “We got some great pitching by Kevin and Pep [Harris], and any time you get good pitching you’ll notice great plays behind them.”

The first gem came in the first inning when second baseman Luis Alicea, attempting to backhand Jason Giambi’s grounder up the middle, kicked the ball right to shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who threw out Giambi at first.

Then Anderson may have saved the game in the fourth when he leaped high over the wall to snag Williams’ drive and made a long one-hop throw to first to double up Dave Magadan, preserving a 3-2 lead.

“I thought that guy was their left fielder--what was he doing out there?” Williams said of Anderson. “Ah, the other guy [Edmonds] would have probably made the same play. He always does.”

Topping off the defensive honor roll was left fielder Tony Phillips, who made a diving, backhand grab of Scott Brosius’ sinking liner to open the seventh. “The defense,” Gross said, “was awesome.”

Gross, who hadn’t appeared in a major league game since last September and spent May home with his family in Claremont, wasn’t so bad himself. He snapped off his trademark curve and mixed his slider and fastball well enough to give up only two runs on four hits and strike out seven in 5 2/3 innings.

Gross suddenly lost command when he walked Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco and Magadan with two out in the sixth, but Harris trotted in with his life preserver, striking out Williams on a full-count pitch to end the inning.

Harris did not give up a hit in the seventh and eighth, and closer Troy Percival struck out two of three in the ninth for his sixth save.

“It was obvious Kevin got real fatigued, but I was real impressed with everything he had,” Collins said. “His velocity was good, his breaking ball was sharp . . . I think we’ll hang on to him for a while.”

Gross, a former Dodger who spent 1996 with the Texas Rangers, was just happy to be back in the big leagues.

“When you’re out of the game for a while, it feels good to come into the clubhouse and put a uniform on,” Gross said. “Doing stuff with my family for a month was fun, but I missed the game. I felt like a little kid [Thursday] night thinking, ‘I’m going to pitch for the Angels.’ This is a fantastic opportunity.”

Salmon felt horrible Thursday night, and when he got to the clubhouse Friday, Edmonds told him he looked like he’d lost 10 pounds.

“I’m not 100% strength-wise,” Salmon said, “but I can stand up without feeling nauseated, and that’s good enough for me.”

Good enough? Just how far would Salmon’s first-inning homer have traveled if he was 100%? All the right-fielder did was blast a Don Wengert pitch an estimated 432 feet for his 11th homer of the season, a three-run shot that followed an error that must have made A’s Manager Art Howe sick.

Dave Hollins had walked with two out in the first, and Howell chopped a grounder off the plate and toward first. But the ball popped out of McGwire’s mitt, and Howell was safe, giving Salmon a chance to bat.

“That was as good as I can hit a ball,” Salmon said. “It was like a perfect golf swing, a nice, smooth stroke. I didn’t muscle up on it at all.”

* ANGEL NOTES: A hobbled Jim Edmonds was scratched from Friday night’s game and may get more time off to heal over weekend. C7

* AL ROUNDUP: The New York Yankees improved their overall record at Jacobs Field to 13-2 with a 7-1 victory over Cleveland. C8