Eight of Nine for the Angels

Angel pitcher Jarrod Washburn said Tuesday’s game was ugly.

Struggling outfielder Tim Salmon refused to look beyond the moment.

Closer Troy Percival wasn’t around, having missed the game because of muscle spasms in his back and hip.

The Angels certainly couldn’t stand much more prosperity. Their 9-6 victory over Tampa Bay in front of 16,131 at Edison Field Tuesday night gave them eight victories in nine games. They are 13-4 since July 4 and two games over .500 for the first time since April 13, when they were 6-4.

“You know, we’re in a little groove right now,” Salmon said. “Let us just ride it out.”

Not exactly a bring-on-the-Yankees postgame celebration, but cautious optimism was abound.

Pitching has kept the Angels from complete collapse.

Washburn wasn’t sharp, but did pitch into the eighth inning. He gave up six runs, three of which were unearned, and won his eighth consecutive game. He had plenty of cushion.

Salmon, Garret Anderson and Scott Spiezio hit home runs, but the Angels have found other ways to push along an offensive awakening. Anaheim has scored 30 runs in its last five games.

“We get two, three, four guys clicking and we can score a lot of runs,” Salmon said. “Look at the way Garret is swinging the bat and Troy [Glaus] and Spiezio are raking the ball.”

The offense allowed Washburn to overcome a so-so performance and win. He gave up two runs in the first, but the Angels went to work.

David Eckstein doubled off the left-field fence in the bottom of the first. He moved to third on a fly ball by Troy Glaus and scored on Darin Erstad’s ground out.

In the fourth, Erstad doubled to left-center, his first hit in 15 at-bats. Anderson singled to right and Erstad scored when the ball bounced off right fielder Randy Winn’s glove.

In the ninth, Salmon walked, stole second, advanced to third on a ground out and scored on another ground out.

“We’ve been scratching out runs, playing hit and run, moving runners over,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We’ve played the type of baseball that doesn’t put pressure on one or two guys to drive the ball.”

Of course, a little power can go a along way.

Joe Kennedy took a 3-2 lead into the fifth, but gave up consecutive singles by Benji Gil and Eckstein, who is five for five lifetime against Kennedy. Glaus then singled, scoring Gil to tie the score, 3-3. After Erstad fouled out, Anderson launched a 1-2 pitch that over the right-field fence for a three-run homer.

Salmon homered to right-center for a 7-3 lead in the seventh. It was his first home run since June 5 against Oakland.

Spiezio homered in the ninth.

“Hey, the home runs don’t hurt,” Scioscia said. “But before the home runs, we did a good job of manufacturing runs by being aggressive on the bases.”

It was plenty of offense.

Washburn, who is 8-0 with a 2.64 earned-run since May 8, looked shaky at times.

“It was ugly, but the guys helped me out a lot tonight,” Washburn said.

Still, Washburn held the Devil Rays to three runs through seven innings, then gave up a three-run homer to Chris Gomez in the eighth.

“We were hoping one of our three young pitchers would become a leader, if not all of them,” Scioscia said. “Jarrod has taken that lead role.”

Washburn struggled early. Brent Abernathy and Ben Grieve had back-to-back singles in th