Everything Goes Angel Way for Once

Pitcher Ramon Ortiz returned to the Angels--then was returned to sender. Troy Glaus returned to form. And Bengie Molina remained consistent.

Such a trifecta was impossible to beat in a 12-4 victory over Colorado before 29,826 at Edison Field Friday.

Glaus burst from a two-for-33 slump with two home runs. Molina broke the game open with his first major league grand slam. They were the biggest hits in offense that has kept the Angels lurking in the American League West Division race.

That muscle made things easy for the much-heralded Ortiz in his return from triple-A Edmonton. He went eight innings, giving up three runs on five hits and walking only two batters.

Yet it only gained Ortiz an all-expenses-paid trip to Edmonton after the game, when he was sent down and pitcher Seth Etherton was recalled.

“Sometimes you have to take a half-step backward to take two steps forward,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He is real close to those two steps. He just needs to bottle what he did tonight.”

That the Angels uncorked another show of power helped Ortiz. They entered Friday’s game second in the American League in home runs and third in batting average and did nothing to drop from those rankings.

“We’re a pretty exciting team,” said Tim Salmon, whose run-scoring single erased the Rockies’ 1-0 lead in the first inning. “Momentum can build, each day we’ve been able to feed off our hitting. It can spread through the entire lineup. It’s contagious.”

If so, then Glaus has been immune the last two weeks. He not only was going hitless, he was rarely hitting the ball. In his previous 33 at-bats, Glaus struck out 18 times.

He joined the feast in the second inning by launching Kevin Jarvis’ 1-0 pitch 395 feet into the left-field bullpen for his 24th home run, giving the Angels a 2-1 lead. It was his first extra-base hit since June 24.

In the sixth, Glaus took out more frustration with a three-run homer that traveled 465 feet. His 25 home runs are the most by an Angel before the All-Star break since Leon Wagner hit 25 in 1962.

“I would say he broke out of his slump,” Scioscia said. “You can’t hit two balls harder than that. He was so hot and did so many things so well earlier this season that you can take him for granted.”

Molina’s home run, though, put the Angels on easy street. The Rockies had cut the lead to 4-3 in the fifth and Ortiz seemed to be teetering.

The Angels loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning and Molina smacked reliever Scott Karl’s first pitch into the left-field bullpen.

It was Molina’s 10th home run, making him the first Angel catcher to reach double figures since Lance Parish in 1991.

“I really can’t say I’ve made it right now,” Molina said. “When the season is over, then I can look back and see if it was successful.

“It’s all about playing time. I am getting a chance and that has a lot to do with it.”

Another chance was what Ortiz hoped for while he sweated it out in Edmonton. He arrived late last season with great expectations. He was being compared to Pedro Martinez even before he got out of double A.

By early May he was back in the minor leagues. “This is a journey for Ramon,” Scioscia said. ‘We aren’t looking for a quick fix. We have to show patience.”

Ortiz, though, would test even the Dalai Lama. He is a 175-pound bundle of talent, yet tends to unravel. He walked 20 batters in 30 innings in his first stint with the Angels.

“In some ways he was doing too much and in other ways he was doing too little,” Scioscia said. “He tried to rear back and throw the ball by everybody. But he wasn’t doing everything he needed to do to improve as a pitcher. That is something that takes a while.”

His problems and promise were exhibited on the first two pitches. Ortiz’s first pitch was up, and Tom Goodwin ripped it for a triple. His second pitch sawed-off Mike Lansing’s bat. He struck out Lansing on three pitches.

He needed only 13 pitches in the first inning, although he gave up a run when Todd Helton’s groundout scored Goodwin.

“He pitched better tonight than I ever saw before,” Scioscia said. ‘He got ahead and put hitters away.”