Angels Drive the A’s Batty in 7-1 Victory

OAKLAND — Somewhere between Detroit and Oakland, the Angels tied up their evil twin and stuffed him in a closet. The same team that scored twice in 18 innings against the Tigers completed a two-game sweep of the Athletics, hammering out a 7-1 victory Thursday before 10,335 in the Oakland Coliseum.

The Angels scored their first four runs on two-out hits, and left-hander Allen Watson had his second consecutive superb outing, limiting the A’s to one run--Geronimo Berroa’s second-inning homer--and five hits in seven innings to improve to 3-3.

Darin Erstad led a 12-hit attack with two doubles and a single, and Jim Edmonds, Garret Anderson and Gary DiSarcina each had two hits. In two games against the A’s, the Angels scored 21 runs and got 26 hits, 11 for extra bases.

“We really scuffled in Detroit, but this shows there are a lot of confident hitters on this team who knew we could turn it around,” Erstad said. “There are going to be times when you can’t manufacture runs, but the thing I’ve seen this year is we don’t carry that over to the next day.

“Nothing snowballs. There are a lot of intense people here who don’t want to get beat, and that feeling is contagious.”

The Angels staked Watson to a 3-0 lead in the second inning when Edmonds doubled and scored on Chad Kreuter’s two-out single, Luis Alicea doubled and DiSarcina, the Angels’ No. 9 batter, followed with a two-run single to center off A’s starter Don Wengert.

“I don’t know if that turned the game around, but it may have gotten us on a roll,” DiSarcina said. “The No. 9 hitter is up, there are two outs and the other team thinks it’s going to get out of it. A hit like that can really deflate the other team and give your team a lift.”

Erstad doubled to open the third inning and scored on Anderson’s two-out double to right-center, and the Angels added two more runs in the fifth, the first on Erstad’s double and the second on Anderson’s two-out single.

“If you’re going to compete, if you’re going to win big games, you’ve got to get those two-out singles with runners in scoring position,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “Home runs are nice, but I’ll take those two-out hits any time.”

So will Watson, who showed his appreciation for the run support by pitching aggressively, attacking hitters with an improved fastball and keeping them off balance with his changeup and curve.

Watson, who shut out Toronto for seven innings in a 3-1 victory Saturday, walked three and struck out three and induced six infield popups for the second consecutive game.

“When he came in today, you could tell he was ready to pitch again,” Collins said. “You could tell the last two games his concentration has been outstanding. His fastball is better, and he wasn’t worried about being too perfect. He just let it go.”

Watson did not give up a hit from the fourth through seventh innings and threw a season-high 111 pitches, but Collins pulled him in favor of Rich DeLucia when Watson’s left hip began acting up again. DeLucia threw two scoreless innings to close out the game.

Watson gave up 14 runs and 19 hits in three outings before the Toronto game, but with help from pitching coach Marcel Lachemann and bullpen coach Joe Coleman, who tutored him in St. Louis four years ago, Watson overhauled his delivery last week, moving toward the first-base side of the rubber and standing more upright from the stretch.

“This was how I threw in St. Louis, but I had kind of lost it,” Watson said. “You have different pitching coaches, you forget what made you successful and you get out of whack. Joe remembered how I pitched in St. Louis four years ago, and I had a lot of success.”