A Laugher for Angels, Washburn

It was comical, the sight of Angel pitcher Jarrod Washburn cracking up as teammates called for the game ball after his first major league hit, a third-inning bloop with 20-20 vision that nestled between the shortstop, third baseman and left fielder for a run-scoring single Saturday.

Hey, it’s a laser to left in the scorebook, right? And when Washburn is old enough to tell his grandchildren about the hit, it will surely evolve into a blistering liner that drove in a key run in an Angel victory.

“I knocked the [stuffing] out of that one, huh?” Washburn said. “I was just laughing because I couldn’t believe I got a hit.”

This was the theme of the day for the Angels, who enjoyed a rare laugher amid a recent flurry of nail-biters, smacking three home runs and riding the strong left arm of Washburn for a 10-3 interleague thrashing of the Arizona Diamondbacks before 35,213 at Bank One Ballpark.

The Angels were due for a breather. Eighteen of their previous 20 victories were decided by three runs or fewer, with 13 of those wins coming by one run. Seventeen of the Angels’ 29 losses this season have been by three runs or fewer, including five by two runs and eight by one run.

And in the last week alone, the Angels lost an 11-inning game to San Francisco Monday night before staging two dramatic, nerve-racking rallies the next two nights against the Giants, scoring twice in the ninth for a 6-5 win Tuesday and once in the eighth for a 10-9 win Wednesday.

So the Angels were not about to apologize for deflating Fox’s national telecast and eliminating the possibility of any suspense with three runs in each of the second, third and fourth innings Saturday.

“I’m sure the hitters and relief pitchers were tired of all these one-run games,” Washburn said. “It was real nice to be ahead early and coast the rest of the way instead of chewing our nails for nine innings.”

Instead, the Angels chewed up Arizona pitching for 13 hits, including homers by Benji Gil (his second), Tim Salmon (15th) and Garret Anderson (15th), and Washburn came through with the best game of his season and one of the best of his career.

The 25-year-old left-hander gave up one run on five hits, including Luis Gonzalez’s seventh-inning homer, in seven innings, striking out six and walking none. Of his 103 pitches, 69 were strikes, including several mitt-popping fastballs that hit 93 mph on the Bank One Ballpark speed gun.

“I was able to locate the fastball better, hit a few more spots and keep them off balance more,” said Washburn, who was ripped for seven runs in 5 1/3 innings of his last start against the Dodgers a week ago. “After my last start, I had to get my command back. This is the first game where I didn’t walk anybody, and that helped.”

Washburn also chipped in with the bat, taking advantage of a rare opportunity to hit in a National League park with a bases-loaded walk in the second, his RBI single in the third and well-executed sacrifice bunts in the fifth and seventh innings.

Washburn’s walk against Arizona starter Omar Daal, which gave Washburn his first big league RBI, foiled the Diamondbacks’ strategy of walking Adam Kennedy intentionally to load the bases with two out after Anderson reached on an infield single and Matt Walbeck doubled him to third.

Darin Erstad followed Washburn’s walk with a two-run double to right, giving the Angels an early 3-0 lead and Erstad his 100th hit of the season.

Daal’s second intentional walk, to Troy Glaus following Salmon’s double in the third, didn’t pan out, either. Walbeck knocked in a run with an infield single, Kennedy singled in a run, the first of three hits for the Angel second baseman, and Washburn capped the rally with his bloop hit for a 6-0 lead.

“You take it for granted, but what Jarrod did today was huge,” Salmon said. “He drew a walk early in the game when it looked like we could squander an opportunity, and then Darin got the hit.

“And I was real impressed with those sacrifice bunts. He did a great job on the mound and at the plate--hey, when’s the last time an Angel pitcher got two RBIs? He has a lot to be excited about.”