Angels Have a Ball With Win Streak

What gets the fans in Anaheim Stadium really excited?

A five-run inning by the home team?

Another sparkling performance by an Angel starter?

An eight-game winning streak?

Pulling to within 1 1/2 games of first-place Seattle in the AL West?

Well, no, but you ought to hear 18,197 people chanting, “Go . . . Go . . . Go” when a guy is reinflating a really big beach ball.

Apparently, Tuesday night’s 6-2 victory over Texas was ho-hum stuff for the spectators, but the Angels are so giddy they’re starting to talk about the postseason.

“I think one of the most important things about this team is the way we’re playing with such high intensity at this time of the year,” said second baseman Luis Alicea, who played in the playoffs with St. Louis last season and Boston in 1995. “That’s something both of those teams did too and it’s very important because you don’t feel like you have to try and turn on a switch down the stretch.”

Comparing a July winning streak with a September pennant race might be a bit of stretch in itself, but you can’t blame the Angels for feeling good. Manager Terry Collins’ decision to go to a four-man rotation is a rousing success so far, the offense is bunching the hits for big innings, the defense has been nothing short of spectacular and the Angels keep finding new ways to win.

“It seems like there’s a different hero every night,” said Dave Hollins, whose two-run double lifted the Angels to a come-from-behind victory Monday.

So Jason Dickson donned the mantle Tuesday night. The 24-year-old right-hander, who Collins said had been “too strong” lately, was apparently just weak enough on this balmy evening highlighted by a postcard-quality sunset.

“He had been throwing 91-92 mph and that’s just not him,” Collins said. “The ball was getting up. Tonight, his ball had some sink to it.”

Dickson went seven innings, spaced out eight hits and gave up only one run when Will Clark sent an 0-2 pitch into the right-field seats leading off the sixth.

“It makes it easy to pitch when you’re up five or six runs,” Dickson said. “You can just challenge guys and not worry about getting hurt. You saw that with the pitch to Clark.”

The Angel offensive show was an ensemble affair, with five players driving in runs.

Dickson must have felt as if he got the usual fourth day of rest during the bottom of the second. The Angels, who scored four times in the second Monday night against Julio Santana, went one better against Ken Hill.

The inning began with singles by Jim Edmonds, Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson and Jim Leyritz. It stalled momentarily when Alicea struck out and Anderson was thrown out trying to steal third, but quickly regained momentum when Gary DiSarcina doubled and Tony Phillips, Darin Erstad and Hollins singled.

“When things are going good, balls fall in, balls find holes,” Collins said. “In the second, everything we hit pretty much found a hole.”

Hill, who was 2-0 with a 2.67 earned-run average in five previous starts against the Angels, left after Erstad’s single, giving way to Matt Whiteside. Texas Manager Johnny Oates probably wished he had started Whiteside, who gave up five hits but only one run in 4 2/3 innings.

The Rangers had two runners on with no one out in the fourth, but DiSarcina did the splits while fielding Lee Stevens’ shot up the middle and made a backhand toss to Alicea to start a double play. And DiSarcina snagged a shot up the middle by Dean Palmer in the ninth and did a 360-spin before throwing him out.

The next batter, Warren Newson, sent a rocket over the center-field fence off reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa, but that only delayed another Angel celebration.

“This is the second half of the season and every series is big,” Collins said. “But this was the last game against our division until September, so, yeah, it was a big game for us.”