Angels Rally in 11th to Top Cleveland

Jack Howell’s one-out single in the 11th inning capped the Angels’ second rally of the game and gave them their first come-from-behind victory of the season, a 6-5 decision over the Cleveland Indians Tuesday night at Anaheim Stadium.

Howell, hitting for Luis Sojo, drilled a pitch from Doug Jones (0-2) to the warning track in left to score Dick Schofield, who had singled and gone to third on Luis Polonia’s single.

The Indians had taken a 5-4 lead in the top of the inning. Chris James reached on a fielding error by third baseman Gary Gaetti, was sacrificed to second, took third on a grounder and came home on a balk charged to Bryan Harvey (1-0).

But Junior Felix tied the score with his first home run as an Angel, a 333-foot drive into the left-field seats. Schofield, Polonia and Howell then delighted those left from the crowd of 20,740 with his game-winning pinch-hit.

The Angels scored four unearned runs against Cleveland left-hander Greg Swindell in the sixth inning but were unable to surge ahead. James reached in the 11th on Gary Gaetti’s error, moved to second on a sacrifice and third on a grounder and scored on Harvey’s first balk of the season.

The Angels lost their previous three games and nine of 13. A four-game losing streak would have been their longest skid of the season.

In the six previous games in which opponents scored first, the Angels were 0-6.

Swindell pitched nine innings, striking out nine and giving up nine hits. Angel starter Scott Lewis failed to make it out of the fifth inning for the second time in four starts this season, giving up all four runs.

The Indians took a 1-0 lead in the first and extended that to 2-0 in the fourth on Albert Belle’s fourth homer of the season. Belle hit 11 homers during spring training. Cleveland produced another run in the fourth on four hits, and padded its lead to 4-0 in the fifth.

That was a bonanza for Swindell, who had gotten a total of four runs’ support in his previous four starts, but his defense undermined his efforts with two errors in the sixth.

Scott Lewis encountered a problem he faced in his previous three starts: giving up runs in the early innings. He gave up a run in the first for the third time in four starts on back-to-back doubles by Mark Lewis and Beau Allred, putting the Angels in a hole.

Lewis also allowed two runs to Minnesota in the first inning of his first start and two to the Seattle Mariners in the first inning of his previous start, April 23. He didn’t allow Oakland a first-inning run on April 18, but did give up a run in the second.

The Indians scored twice in the fourth inning to take a 3-0 lead, a margin that would have been greater if not for their sloppy baserunning.

Belle led off with his fourth home run of the season, a drive measured at 400 feet.