Angels rally in 8th to complete sweep of Giants

Neither Torii Hunter nor Vladimir Guerrero were in the lineup against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday, but both were available, which raised an interesting question for Mike Scioscia.

Whom would the Angels manager turn to with the game on the line -- Hunter, who is batting .319 with 16 home runs and 51 runs batted in, or Guerrero, the slugger who has been slowed by injury but had pinch-hit singles Monday and Tuesday night?

“We have two pretty good choices,” Scioscia said. “It’s like, what do you want for dinner, linguine with red sauce or white sauce? They’re both good.”

As it turned out, Scioscia got to have his pasta and eat it, too.

Hunter and Guerrero led off the eighth inning with pinch-hit singles against Tim Lincecum, sparking an improbable three-run rally against one of baseball’s best pitchers that led the Angels to a 4-3 interleague victory over the Giants in AT&T; Park.

Justin Speier struck out Aaron Rowand with two on to end the eighth inning, and closer Brian Fuentes struck out two of three in the ninth for his 18th save, as the Angels extended their winning streak to six games.

“This is big, he’s one of the best pitchers in the game right now, and I saw it today,” Hunter said of Lincecum, the 2008 National League Cy Young Award winner.

“I’m on the bench thinking, ‘Wow, what a day to have off.’ Uh-uh, no day off, I had to go in and face him anyway. You get behind him, he’ll throw the changeup, the slider or the 95-mph fastball by you.”

Lincecum, who was 6-1 with a 2.66 earned-run average and hadn’t lost since April 12, limited the Angels to one run and four hits through seven innings and took a 3-1 lead into the eighth.

But Hunter, a career .105 (two for 19) pinch-hitter who hadn’t played since he was knocked out of Monday night’s game in the fourth inning because of bruised ribs, led off with a first-pitch single to right-center field.

Guerrero, who had one hit in 10 career pinch-hit at-bats before this series, followed with a single to center field, and Scioscia let Chone Figgins, who is batting .388 (52 for 134) in his last 33 games, swing away instead of bunt.

Was the leadoff batter surprised?

“Not with Scioscia,” Figgins said. “You never know what can happen with him.”

Figgins rewarded his manager by lining a full-count pitch off the glove of diving second baseman Matt Downs for a run-scoring double that made it 3-2.

“Chone was not a high double-play probability, and I thought it would be good to give him a full at-bat,” Scioscia said. “That was the at-bat of the game.”

With the infield in, Erick Aybar beat out a grounder to the shortstop hole for an infield single. Guerrero scored the tying run, and Figgins held at second base.

Figgins took third on Bengie Molina’s passed ball, and after Maicer Izturis struck out, Juan Rivera hit a high chopper to third baseman Pablo Sandoval.

The speedy Figgins broke with contact. It appeared Sandoval might have a play with a quick release and perfect throw to the plate, but Sandoval threw to first base and Figgins scored the go-ahead run.

“In that situation,” Manager Bruce Bochy said, “you have to go for it.”

Scioscia disagreed.

“Chone got an extraordinary jump, and that ball was in the air for a while,” he said. “I didn’t think he had a play.”

The Angels, who are a major league-best 8-1 in interleague play after three-game sweeps of San Diego and San Francisco, had 43 runs and 70 hits, including 15 home runs, during the first five games of this winning streak, fattening up on some of the NL’s lesser pitchers.

But Wednesday’s win over Lincecum, who leads the NL with 112 strikeouts, added some legitimacy to the Angels’ recent run of success, which they hope continues with this weekend’s Freeway Series against the Dodgers in Anaheim.

“We’ve earned everything we’ve gotten -- we’ve played well and we’ve won,” Scioscia said. “We beat one of the best pitchers in the game this afternoon, and you can see first-hand why he’s so good. So, we can carry a little momentum with that.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com