Rapp, Relief and Glaus Add Up to Angel Win

Angel right-hander Pat Rapp was not dominant, by any means. The Angel offense did not have a bust-out night, accumulating only eight hits. The Angel defense did not make any spectacular plays and even committed two errors that led to an unearned run in the ninth inning.

But for the first time in several weeks, the Angels put together a something that resembled a complete game, combining solid starting pitching, superb relief pitching, several clutch hits and some good defense to defeat the Chicago White Sox, 6-4, Tuesday night before 15,664 in Edison Field.

Rapp gave up three runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking two, to earn his first win as an Angel. Al Levine threw 1 2/3 hitless relief innings, Shigetoshi Hasegawa threw a hitless eighth, and Troy Percival added a hitless ninth for his fifth save.

Third baseman Troy Glaus, whose average sagged to .228 Sunday, had three hits and three runs batted in, snapping a 13-game homerless streak with a solo shot to open the eighth, and Garret Anderson had two hits and an RBI.

Second baseman David Eckstein committed two errors on the same play in the ninth, booting Harold Baines’ grounder and overthrowing first, allowing Magglio Ordonez to score from second to make it 6-4.

But Eckstein made two outstanding plays earlier in the game, backhanding Royce Clayton’s third-inning grounder behind second base and making the long throw to first, and ranging to his left to field Jose Valentin’s fourth-inning grounder, which caromed off the first-base bag, and throwing to Rapp covering first for the out.

The Angels also turned two double plays and gained ground on first-place Seattle in the American League West for the first time since April 18. They are nine games behind the Mariners.

“We played good defense, made some great plays, and we hit the ball,” Rapp said. “When we hit, we’re going to win.”

Glaus had not hit much of anything since April 15, the night he clubbed his sixth homer of the season. Since then, he had only nine hits, eight of them singles, and two RBIs in 13 games. But he knocked in runs in the first and third innings and provided a key insurance run in the eighth Tuesday night.

“The last two weeks, he hasn’t really been in his groove, and his average has paid a price,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “But he’s certainly dangerous at any time. Don’t be misled by his average.”

White Sox left-hander David Wells, who was trying to become the first White Sox pitcher to go nine innings in three consecutive starts since Jack McDowell in 1994, got off to a shaky start when Eckstein walked to open the first, Darin Erstad reached on a fielder’s choice and Tim Salmon walked.

Anderson lined an RBI single to right field and Glaus looped an RBI single to left to give the Angels a 2-0 lead, which was something of a novelty. Opponents scored first in 18 of the Angels’ first 25 games and outscored the Angels, 30-15, in the first two innings of the first 25 games.

The Angels padded the lead with two more runs in the third, a rally that began with a Wells walk to Salmon. Anderson singled to right, and Glaus doubled just beyond the reach of lunging left fielder Carlos Lee, scoring Salmon for a 3-0 lead. Shawn Wooten’s sacrifice fly to center made it 4-0.

The White Sox scored twice in the bottom of the fourth on Lee’s two-run double, and Valentin homered to right in sixth, making it 4-3.

After Glaus’ homer in the eighth, the Angels added another insurance run when Wally Joyner tripled to right-center and scored on Benji Gil’s sacrifice fly to left. That secured Rapp’s first win in six starts.

“It took a while, but he hung in there long enough and finally got a win,” Scioscia said of Rapp. “I think his confidence has grown with every good outing.”