Angels’ Rookie Has a Ball : Baseball: Anderson hits first homer, Boskie improves to 5-0 with 7-2 victory over Twins.

Garret Anderson, walking through the Angel dugout on his way to stretch with his teammates Tuesday afternoon, stopped in his tracks. He simply had to take another peek at the posted lineup card.

He took a long look as if to confirm what he had been told earlier. Yes, his name really was there among Tuesday’s starters--batting sixth and playing left field.

Hours later, Anderson made the move look brilliant, hitting his first major league home run in the Angels’ 7-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Anaheim Stadium. Anderson’s three-run homer was only his seventh major league hit, but it highlighted a four-run fourth inning.

Later, hitting coach Rod Carew presented Anderson with the ball.

“I don’t know if that’s the real ball,” Anderson said with a laugh as teammates Rex Hudler and Lee Smith leaned close along with reporters to listen to the rookie’s postgame comments.

“I’ll probably give it to my mom.”

Manager Marcel Lachemann moved Tony Phillips from left field to third base to clear a spot for Anderson, who has been biding his time on the bench since being recalled from triple-A Vancouver on June 7.

Anderson batted .311 with 12 runs batted in in 14 games for the Canadians, but he had only one hit in five at-bats since returning from the minors. Certainly, he made the most of Tuesday’s chance to start, joining in the Angels’ relentless bashing of the hapless Twins.

After striking out in his first at-bat, Anderson slammed an 0-and-1 pitch over the right-field fence. The moment the ball left the bat, it seemed clear it was a home run. However, Anderson put his head down and began sprinting around the bases as if he needed to leg out a double.

“I don’t hit too many home runs, so when I hit the ball I take off running,” Anderson said.

So has Anderson earned another start tonight? Lachemann wouldn’t say for sure, but liked what he saw.

“We’ll have to see,” he said. “We had been talking about it [starting Anderson in left] when we came back home. We might have done it Monday, but they had the left-hander [Eddie Guardado] going.”

Anderson, a left-handed hitter, is expected to play primarily against right-handed pitchers.

The Twins had their ace, right-hander Kevin Tapani, starting Tuesday. It didn’t help.

Tapani has won one-third of the Twins’ 12 victories this season and had pitched 20 consecutive innings without giving up an earned run or an extra-base hit.

Then the fourth inning rolled around and neither Tapani, 4-5 with a 4.67 earned-run average, nor the Twins, on pace to break the major league record for homers allowed in a season with 79 so far, recovered.

Angel starter Shawn Boskie made sure the Twins lost their fifth in a row, pushing them 21 games behind American League Central-leading Cleveland.

Boskie, 5-0 with a 3.99 ERA, gave up eight hits and two runs with five strikeouts in eight innings. He did not issue a walk, marking the seventh start in which he has given up one walk or fewer.

“All this run production is almost awkward,” Boskie said after the Angels pounded out seven runs and 13 hits. “It’s a nice feeling, but I’m constantly telling myself to stay aggressive instead of being protective.”

Aside from the scoreless first three innings, Tuesday looked a lot like batting practice for the Angels.

Anderson had two hits, Jim Edmonds had two hits, including a bases-empty homer in the fifth, and extended his hitting streak to a career-best 10 games. Tim Salmon singled in his first two at-bats, running his streak of reaching base safely to nine consecutive plate appearances.

For those first three innings, however, the game almost resembled a pitchers’ duel. In the fourth, first the Twins, then the Angels, wrecked all that.

Minnesota loaded the bases on three straight singles. Following their season-long method of operation, however, they made the least out of the most, scoring only once.

The Angels countered with J.T. Snow’s run-scoring single and Anderson’s three-run homer and the rout was on for the second consecutive night.

Edmonds led off the fifth with his eighth homer of the season. He added a two-run double in the sixth pushing the lead to 7-2.