Owen and Jackson Swinging in Tandem : Baseball: Going three for four, with homer for Bo and double for Spike, mark rare big night for both Angels.

It’s not often that Angel third baseman Spike Owen and outfielder Bo Jackson open the morning paper to find a three-for-four night next to their names in the box score.

Today, they will.

Jackson was three for four with a home run and Owen added three hits, two runs batted in and two runs scored as the Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-4, Wednesday night at Anaheim Stadium.

Owen has started only 52 of 96 games this season, but he is becoming a regular at third base now that Damion Easley has been moved to second. He’s 15 for 37 with 10 RBIs since July 9, missing two games because of a bruised heel.

“I owe a lot to (hitting coach) Rod Carew,” Owen said. “He helped me a lot early, when I wasn’t playing a lot. He was stressing getting in a lot of work in batting practice and getting good at-bats when I was in.

“And the other person is (Angel Manager Marcel) Lachemann. When he took over as manager (in May) he could have stuck me in the eighth spot. But when I started swinging well, he stuck me in the leadoff spot and then moved me to the second spot, where I’m more comfortable. There’s a feeling of confidence there, that he knows I can do the job.”

It came as somewhat of a surprise to Lachemann, who said, “I didn’t know (Owen) was that good of a ballplayer.”

Owen had base hits in the first and second innings, scoring in the first when Chili Davis grounded into a double play, and drove in two runs with his single to left in the second. He doubled to left in the fifth and scored on Davis’ fly to center field.

Going three for four is somewhat of a new concept for Jackson, who will never be mistaken for a singles hitter. His three-hit game against the Red Sox matched his season-high on May 16 at Chicago.

Sure, Jackson can still let loose with an occasional big swing, as he did in the seventh inning when he hit Chris Howard’s first pitch over the left-field fence for his 10th homer of the season.

But he also has cut down on the number of bad swings, where he lunged at outside pitches, a problem that has plagued him most of the season. As a result, he’s substituting base hits for strikeouts--as he did Wednesday night.

He has raised his average from .203 to .279 in the last 36 games, hitting safely in 20 of them. He’s hitting just over .300 in that stretch with six home runs and 22 RBIs.

Saturday night, his pinch-hit home run off Baltimore’s Lee Smith tied the score at 3-3 in the ninth, setting up a 4-3 Angel victory. It was his first game-tying or go-ahead RBI since April 17 against Toronto.

“Bo has had a pretty good idea of what he wants to do when he goes up to the plate,” Lachemann said. “He has been doing a hell of a job for us.”