Phillips Knocks In Winner

The Angels’ 10-game winning streak was over and Saturday was the first day of the rest of their season. The hangover from that success seemed to linger a bit.

The Angels finally shook off the doldrums when Tony Phillips singled home Luis Alicea with two outs in the ninth for a 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in front of 28,288 at Anaheim Stadium. It was their 26th come-from-behind victory this season.

Still, it was nothing to get too keyed up about.

“There is a lot of season left,” Garret Anderson said before the game. “We have two months to go and every day there is going to be a different turn.”

The Angels zig-zagged through Saturday’s game. They trailed, 4-0, then rallied to tie the score.

Starter Jason Dickson was rocked, then rolled, then left abruptly after completing his warmups before the seventh inning.

It then came down to Phillips, who had twice been robbed of hits that might have started rallies. He won it by hitting a 3-2 pitch into left field that lost enough steam for Alicea to beat Joe Carter’s throw.

It turned out to be quite a way to follow up a winning streak that had pulled them to within half a game of first-place Seattle. The streak had ended Friday with a 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays and there were two ways to deal with the aftermath.

“We lost a tough one last night, but all I can do is keep playing,” Tim Salmon said. “I don’t analyze things too much.”

Manager Terry Collins, on the other hand, is paid to scan the big picture.

“We can’t give back any of that ground we picked up,” Collins said. “We have to bust our butts. That’s why we are where we are right now and that’s the way we’re going to stay there. This is where the fight starts.”

The Angels didn’t exactly come out swinging Saturday. But Salmon put some punch into the Angels, who seemed mesmerized by Blue Jay starter Robert Person.

Person was 3-6 entering the game, but he had won three of his last four starts and he didn’t give up a hit for three innings. Person struck out Dave Hollins to begin the fourth, then went south.

Jim Edmonds walked and Salmon followed by hitting the first pitch over the left-field fence to cut the Blue Jay lead to 4-2. Jim Leyritz hit a bases-empty home run one out later.

Salmon doubled in the sixth and scored on a wild pitch by reliever Paul Quantrill.

The Angels, who seemed to find holes for key hits during the 10-game streak, couldn’t catch a break when they hit the ball hard Saturday.

Carter took a double away from Phillips with a leaping catch in left field to start the bottom of the first. Phillips was robbed again in the seventh, when shortstop Alex Gonzalez made a leaping catch. Again, it led off the inning.

The Angels had Alicea on first with two outs in the fourth when first baseman Carlos Delgado reacted quickly to his left to snag Craig Grebeck’s line drive. It prevented an extra-base hit and possibly a run.

Dickson wasn’t at his best, even against a team that is last in the American League in hitting. The Blue Jays are also last in the league in runs scored. Only three teams have hit fewer home runs.

That didn’t seem to be a problem Saturday. Shawn Green homered to left for a 1-0 lead in the second inning. After an error by Alicea, Alex Gonzalez hit a Dickson pitch 421 feet to center field for a 3-0 lead.

Dickson, though, settled down and wound up giving up only two earned runs in six innings.

Dickson finished his warmups before the seventh inning, when Collins came to the mound. After a brief conversation, Dickson surrendered the baseball and Mike Holtz, who had been warming up, was brought in.

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* BILL PLASCHKE

Angels should not trade for Oakland’s Mark McGwire. C2