Angels Send Early Signal of Success

If there is to be something here, something more than the usual Angel stuff, maybe this is how it begins, with semi-regular starting pitching and a dynamic offense and just enough of a bullpen not to waste it all.

The team in search of an identity won its third consecutive game, a half-week’s brilliance the Angels managed only six times last year. Of those six winning streaks of at least three games, three were in September, long after the season was condemned and the wrecking ball had swung.

The Angels defeated the Boston Red Sox, 7-5, Saturday night at Edison Field, where 27,369 watched right-hander Ken Hill (1-0) win for the first time since August and the Angels hammer out 13 hits, including three more by Darin Erstad.

After five games, the Angels rank near the top of the American League in team batting and pitching. If not for three fluke errors by shortstop Gary DiSarcina, they would be near the top in fielding too.

And didn’t a franchise that lost its corporate and competitive energy with 92 losses in 1999 desperately need to play reasonably well for the first week or two? Didn’t Hill have to act like an ace? Didn’t Erstad have to be healthy and athletic again?

Didn’t they have to play just well enough for just long enough to forget, if for no other reason than to build a wall between last year’s crises and whatever might arise this season?

“I think a lot of it is confidence, getting that confidence, knowing we can compete,” Hill said. “It’s good we opened with the Yankees and the Red Sox. It gives us confidence knowing we can compete with these teams. You want to see where you are as a ballclub. It’s still early, but that confidence level, that togetherness, it’s crucial.”

Hill’s personal comeback season has begun with consecutive solid starts. He allowed two singles and one run to the Red Sox over six innings. His primary weapon was a superior split-fingered fastball, particularly to left-handers. He left after 98 pitches and with a 2-1 lead, an advantage that was 6-1 by the end of the Angel sixth inning.

It was the bullpen and its aversion to the strike zone that brought the Red Sox back, though Kent Mercker, Shigetosi Hasegawa, Mark Petkovsek and Lou Pote did eventually get the ball to closer Troy Percival, who earned his first save. Six Angel pitchers issued 10 walks before it was done.

Of some concern was a bruised left thumb sustained by DiSarcina. He left the game after seven innings.

The Angels scored in the first inning for the second consecutive game against the Red Sox, who found themselves in a 2-0 hole a night after they fell behind, 3-0.

Erstad lined a single to left-center field against starter Brian Rose (0-1) and Adam Kennedy walked on four pitches.

At the end of an odd first week for Mo Vaughn, in which he awoke Saturday morning tied for the American League lead in stolen bases and without a home run, he came to bat for a team-leading eighth time with a runner in scoring position. On the previous occasions, he had one hit and and five strikeouts.

Behind 0-and-2 in the count, Vaughn singled to left and Erstad scored. Kennedy later scored from third on a fielder’s choice and the Angels led, 2-0.

This is a different Angel offense with Erstad batting .583, as he was after three more hits, than with Erstad batting .253, as he did all of last season.

The Angels have played five games and Erstad has had at least two hits in all of them.

The Red Sox scored a run in the sixth and were within 2-1, but only for minutes. Troy Glaus doubled home Garret Anderson with one out in the home half of the inning, and the last pitch Rose threw Scott Spiezio was hit for a two-run home run, the designated hitter’s first as an Angel.

Reliever Bryce Florie gave up a single by Bengie Molina, a sacrifice bunt by DiSarcina and a run-scoring double by Erstad. The Angels led, 6-1.

Molina, who added an RBI single in the ninth, matched a career high with three hits.