ON THE ANGELS

Parting is such sweet sorrow, for Shakespeare and the Angels, who bid a wistful farewell to the National League West with a wild and wacky 12-8 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday at Chase Field.

In extending their winning streak to five games and notching their 12th victory in 15 games, the Angels closed interleague play with a major league-best 14-4 record, which included three-game sweeps of San Diego, San Francisco and Arizona.

Not only did the Angels beat up on NL West pitching, batting .297 with 31 home runs and averaging 6.6 runs in interleague play, they seemed to bring out the worst in some NL opponents.

The Diamondbacks, in what had to be one of the ugliest innings in the major leagues this year, committed three errors in the fifth inning Sunday and could have been charged with two more errors had the Angels advanced on two overthrows.

That paved the way for five unearned runs and a win in which the Angels gave up 15 hits, including 10 hits and six runs by starter Matt Palmer, who improved to 7-1 despite his recent struggles.

And then there was this indignity for the Diamondbacks: Gary Matthews Jr., after hitting a three-run double in the fourth inning, pulled off a steal of home, the first by an Angel since Orlando Cabrera did it against the Dodgers’ Chad Billingsley, then a rookie, on July 2, 2006, in Anaheim.

“We haven’t won these games because we’re playing NL clubs,” Manager Mike Scioscia said, refusing to acknowledge that his team’s surge to the top of the American League West coincided with the bulk of the interleague schedule. “We’ve won because we’re playing better baseball.”

They’re winning because they’re hitting for power -- Juan Rivera (two-run shot in the fifth), Jeff Mathis (solo shot in the eighth) and Maicer Izturis (two-run shot in the ninth) each hit home runs Sunday -- playing better defense and getting better late-inning relief.

Arizona scored once in the fifth inning and five times in the sixth against Palmer and Kevin Jepsen to pull to within 9-8, but Jason Bulger, Justin Speier and Brian Fuentes blanked the Diamondbacks over the final three innings.

The Angels began the game with a major league-worst 5.51 bullpen earned-run average, but Bulger has given up two runs in eight innings of his last eight games, Speier has given up one run in 9 2/3 innings of his last 11 games, and Fuentes has not given up any runs in 7 2/3 innings of his last nine games.

The Angels have long won with aggressive baserunning, and there was no better example than Matthews’ daring dash Sunday.

Matthews, starting in place of Torii Hunter, slapped a full-count pitch to left field with the bases loaded and two out for a three-run double and took third when third baseman Augie Ojeda’s throw home hit Kendry Morales and rolled toward the backstop.

With Arizona starter Max Scherzer going out of a full windup, Matthews took off on a 1-and-2 pitch to Erick Aybar. The pitch was high and away, and Matthews eluded catcher Miguel Montero’s tag by sliding to the front of the plate.

“Dino [Ebel, third base coach] told me I had the green light from the dugout, so if you want to go, take a shot,” Matthews said. “How many opportunities are you going to have to steal home and the manager doesn’t mind?”

Matthews’ first big league run came when he stole home for the Padres against Seattle on June 4, 1999, but that was on the back end of a double steal. This was his first outright steal of home.

“I got a good jump and pulled it off,” Matthews said. “The key was getting a big lead. They’re definitely not expecting it with two strikes. If there was a right-handed hitter up there, I wouldn’t have even tried.”

The Diamondbacks channeled the Bad News Bears in the fifth, in which first baseman Mark Reynolds missed a chest-high throw from shortstop Stephen Drew on Mathis’ grounder, right fielder Justin Upton dropped Izturis’ fly ball and second baseman Felipe Lopez allowed Bobby Abreu’s grounder to go through his legs.

“They opened the door for us,” Scioscia said. “It’s not often you’re going to give up 15 hits and win a game. We were fortunate.”

--

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com