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DETROIT — Accumulating as many errors as hits in a game is not the best formula for beating the American League’s best team -- unless you mix in a healthy dose of the kind of pitching the
Angels did Sunday night.
Kelvim Escobar threw eight nearly flawless innings, giving up one unearned run, two hits and striking out seven, and closer Francisco Rodriguez provided another in a long line of
door-slamming ninth innings to lead the Angels to a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers in Comerica Park.
The Angels had only three hits, including Vladimir Guerrero’s fourth-inning home run and Orlando Cabrera’s two-out, run-scoring single in the fifth, and made three errors, but still
prevented Oakland from widening its AL West gap; the Angels remained 7 1/2 games out with 25 games left.
“That was an incredible game for Kelvim, especially with the adversity he faced,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of Escobar, who has an 8-0 career record and 2.10 earned-run average against the
Tigers. “We didn’t play well behind him, but he made pitches to minimize damage. That’s about as good an eight innings as you can pitch.”
The ninth inning was more of the same. Rodriguez, after giving up a leadoff single to Magglio Ordonez, got Sean Casey to fly to left, struck out Ivan Rodriguez on a 96-mph fastball and got
Marcus Thames to pop out for his 38th save.
The right-hander lowered his ERA to 1.85 and has not given up a run in 24 1/3 innings of his last 24 games, a stretch in which he has given up 17 hits, struck out 32 and walked nine.
Does Rodriguez even remember the last time he gave up a run?
For the record, it was June 26, when he gave up a home run to Colorado’s Jorge Piedra while saving a 5-4 victory.
“I’ve been attacking the hitters, being more aggressive -- that’s the key,” Rodriguez said. “That’s one of the things I learned last year when I walked too many guys. I want to make pitches
early in the count and put guys away.”
For Rodriguez, who has one of the game’s most devastating sliders, that means using his fastball more than his breaking pitch.
“I’ve been reading hitters, and when I see them looking for the slider, that’s where the fastball comes in,” Rodriguez said. “I have more strikeouts with my fastball than my slider right
now.”
Escobar (10-12) has a more expansive, five-pitch repertoire, and all of his pitches were working Sunday. Despite working overtime because of two errors by third baseman Chone Figgins and one
by Cabrera at shortstop, Escobar needed only 103 pitches to get through eight innings.
“It’s difficult when you give a good team extra outs, but you have to put it out of your mind, stay focused and keep pitching,” Escobar said.
The Angels have made a league-high 108 errors and given up a major league-high 78 unearned runs, but their defense also prevented the Tigers from taking a two-run lead in the third inning.
Cabrera’s error on Dmitri Young’s third-inning grounder allowed the Tigers to load the bases with two outs, and Ordonez lined a run-scoring single to left field for a 1-0 lead. But left
fielder Juan Rivera fired a one-hop throw to the plate to nail Craig Monroe, ending the inning.
Guerrero led off the fourth with his 28th home run -- a shot to left field that Detroit Manager Jim Leyland said “went out of the park like a missile” -- to extend his hitting streak to 20
games, in which he is batting .391 with seven homers and 26 runs batted in.
Tim Salmon led off the fifth inning with a single and later scored on Cabrera’s hit for a 2-1 lead, and Guerrero, the right fielder who has made 10 errors, ranged far into the gap in
right-center field to make a lunging catch of Curtis Granderson’s drive to lead off the eighth, robbing the speedster of a possible triple.