Angel Fortunes Rise With Schoeneweis Sinker

Two five-game streaks were forged and one was forgotten Thursday night, as Angel left-hander Scott Schoeneweis put his struggles behind him and tasted victory for the first time since June 7.

In yet another impressive performance in a season filled with rare Angel pitching gems, Schoeneweis gave up one run on four hits in 8 2/3 innings to lead the Angels to a 4-1 interleague victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks before 18,724 at Edison Field.

The win snapped Schoeneweis’ personal five-game losing streak, extended the Angels’ winning streak to five and the National League West-leading Diamondbacks’ losing streak to five.

“It was tough because I felt like I was holding us back every fifth day,” Schoeneweis said. “Everyone else was pitching well, we’d win two or three in a row, then my day would come and I’d screw it up. Hopefully, that’s a distant memory.”

Schoeneweis (7-8) outdueled Arizona left-hander Brian Anderson, the former Angel who gave up four runs--one earned--on four hits in eight innings, to move the Angels to within eight games of Boston in the wild-card race.

Though he hadn’t won in more than a month, there were indications Schoeneweis would break out of his slump. After getting bombed for 22 earned runs on 26 hits in three straight losses from June 19-29, Schoeneweis gave up two runs on nine hits in eight innings of a 2-0 loss to Oakland July 4.

Angel catcher Bengie Molina had a hunch before Thursday’s game that Schoeneweis would dominate.

“If he gets a downward angle on his sinker, he’s going to be good, and as soon as I saw he had that in the bullpen, I knew it was going to be a good night,” said Molina, who homered in the fifth inning. “Scott was outstanding, almost close to perfect. His fastball, sinker and slider were all working great, and he looked very comfortable on the mound.”

Except for the ninth inning, when Schoeneweis gave up his only run. Schoeneweis was one out away from a complete game when Luis Gonzalez reached on an infield single, advancing Junior Spivey to third.

Matt Williams grounded an RBI single to center on Schoeneweis’ 125th pitch, bringing the tying run to the plate. Angel Manager Mike Scioscia, not taking any chances, turned the game over to closer Troy Percival, who caught Mark Grace looking at a 98-mph fastball for strike three to end the game, recording his 22nd save.

“Of course, I wanted to finish the game,” said Schoeneweis, who struck out one and walked three. “But if you have to go to a closer, we have the best guy in baseball; he’s a good guy to go to.”

Schoeneweis also got an assist from center fielder Darin Erstad, who raced into the right-center-field gap to make a diving catch of Reggie Sanders’ liner with one out in the eighth.

“Ersty saves my butt at least once a game, and he reminds me of it all the time,” Schoeneweis said. “He’s a great player. He’s unbelievable.”

Sanders was on the wrong end of two key defensive plays, a great one in the eighth and an awful one in the first, when the Arizona right fielder dropped David Eckstein’s flare to the gap for an error to open the inning.

Eckstein took second on Adam Kennedy’s groundout, and after Erstad popped to third for the second out, Eckstein stole third. Troy Glaus then walked.

Garret Anderson, who went six for 14 with two home runs and seven runs batted in during a three-game sweep of Colorado last weekend, ripped an RBI double down the right-field line that sent Glaus to third.

Shawn Wooten, anointed by Scioscia Thursday as the Angels’ starting designated hitter, rewarded his manager’s confidence in him by fisting a two-run single to center for a 3-0 lead, giving him 15 RBIs in the last 15 games.

Brian Anderson recovered nicely, retiring the next 10 batters before Molina led off the fifth with his first homer of the season, blasting an 0-and-1 changeup over the wall in left-center for a 4-0 lead.

It was Anderson’s second hard-luck loss in a row after giving up three runs on five hits in seven innings of a 3-0 loss to Oakland left-hander Mark Mulder last Friday.