Blyleven Continues to Sparkle : Angels: He gives up two hits and one run through six innings of 4-1 victory over Rangers.

Nolan Ryan’s induction into the Angels’ Hall of Fame was an impossible act to follow, but Bert Blyleven produced an impressive performance of his own Tuesday night.

Blyleven continued his astonishing comeback from rotator cuff surgery by giving up only two hits Tuesday, lasting six innings in the Angels’ 4-1 victory over the Rangers before an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 51,401, the largest of the season.

Blyleven (3-0) yielded only a one-out single to Jeff Huson in the fifth and a two-out homer to Juan Gonzalez in the sixth as the Angels won for the fifth time in their last six games.

With his 282nd career victory, Blyleven passed teammates Jim Abbott (2-9) and Chuck Finley (2-5) in victories. Only Scott Bailes (3-0), Julio Valera (3-5) and Mark Langston (4-6) have won more games than Blyleven.

The 41-year-old right-hander struck out seven, matching his season high and increasing his career total to 3,654. He has allowed only six earned runs in 32 1/3 innings this season. Scott Bailes pitched two-thirds of an inning and Joe Grahe finished, recording his second save of the season.

The Angels scored a run in the first against Jose Guzman (6-4) and two in the second on a two-run home run by catcher Ron Tingley. Blyleven, who threw an economical 98 pitches, didn’t need more support than that.

His curveball dropping dramatically and freezing hitters at the plate, Blyleven picked up where he left off in his previous start, in which he pitched six shutout innings at Chicago last Thursday. He escaped a potentially dangerous situation by striking out Geno Petralli and Huson with runners on first and third in the second inning, and had five strikeouts through the first three innings.

The Angels did their part by scoring three runs, making Blyleven’s task that much easier. Luis Polonia opened the game with a double into the gap in left-center. He took third on Luis Sojo’s sacrifice up the third base line and scored on Von Hayes’ fly to medium-deep center.

The Rangers mounted a threat in the second, but Blyleven defused it with a fine display of poise. Gonzalez led off with a grounder to third that Gary Gaetti fielded but then dropped, for an error. Gaetti recovered but then threw the ball wildly over first baseman Lee Stevens, for another error. Gaetti, a four-time Gold Glove winner while with the Twins, has committed 16 errors this season. That’s one short of his total for last season, when he played 152 games at third.

Gonzalez tagged and went to third on Kevin Reimer’s fly to right, and Blyleven appeared to be teetering when he walked designated hitter Brian Downing. But he rallied to get Petralli on a called third strike and to get Huson swinging, drawing a round of applause from the crowd.

Blyleven’s teammates rewarded his performance by increasing their lead to 3-0 in the third. Gaetti, booed loudly for his fielding misadventures when he came to bat, turned some of the jeers to cheers when he stroked a two-out single to right. Tingley sent him home by lining an 0-and-1 pitch a few rows into the left-field seats, Tingley’s second home run of the season. His first homer, on May 27 against the Red Sox, was also hit at Anaheim Stadium.

The Rangers couldn’t muster a hit off Blyleven until one out in the fifth, when Huson poked a single through the left side of the infield. He stole second but got no further. John Cangelosi hit a fly ball to center that hung in the air long enough for Junior Felix to run under it and cradle it in his glove. Julio Franco ended the inning with a hopper to second that was handled easily by Sojo.

But Sojo, who jammed his left hand into the bag while trying to steal second base in the third inning, was taken out of the game in the fifth inning because of a jammed thumb. Rene Gonzales hit for him and remained in the game at second base.

Blyleven’s bid for his 61st shutout ended in the sixth, when Gonzalez powered a 1-and-1 pitch over the fence in right-center for his 16th home run of the season and second in two games. Gonzalez, who ranks among the AL home run leaders, was born in October, 1969, several months after Blyleven made his professional debut with Sarasota.