Angels Enjoy Breaks

Perhaps the Angels were due for a break. Or two. Or three. At the end of a grueling six-game trip that included four late-inning losses and several plays in which the ball slipped out of their hands or fell inches out of their reach, good fortune finally touched them Sunday.

Two outfield errors paved the way for four unearned runs, and a questionable call by an umpire led to another run, as the Angels cruised to a 14-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers before 20,012 in Comerica Park.

Left-hander Jarrod Washburn gave up two runs and five hits in six innings and had a career-high nine strikeouts. The Angels tied a season high with 16 hits, and their season-high 14 runs were the most the Tigers have given up in two seasons at Comerica.

Darin Erstad extended his hitting streak to seven games with three singles and also had two runs and two runs batted in. Adam Kennedy had three hits and two runs, shortstop Benji Gil had two hits and three RBIs, and Troy Glaus had two RBI doubles for the Angels, who scored seven runs in the ninth off Tiger reliever Matt Miller.

“We got some breaks today, some balls fell in, and those things haven’t been happening of late,” said Glaus, whose hardest-hit ball, a long drive to left-center in the fifth, was caught some 430 feet from home plate.

“The breaks will come. You can’t get down. You just have to know if you keep playing the game right, they’ll come.”

After making three critical errors in the first two games here, both losses, the Angels played a near flawless game Sunday. Six of their first seven runs scored after two were out. Jose Molina executed a sacrifice bunt and David Eckstein a suicide squeeze in the sixth inning. They turned two double plays and did not make an error.

Which is more than could be said for the Tigers. With the bases loaded and two outs in the third, Garret Anderson flared a ball to left that nicked off the glove of Bobby Higginson, who attempted a shoe-string catch. The error allowed the Angels to take a 2-0 lead.

Erstad led off the fifth with a grounder to third, where Shane Halter made a diving stop and threw to first. Erstad was ruled safe by umpire Mike Reilly, though replays showed he was out by half a step. Orlando Palmeiro’s two-out RBI single made it 3-0.

After Eckstein’s squeeze and Glaus’ RBI double made it 5-0 in the sixth, Tiger center fielder Juan Encarnacion, appearing nonchalant as he went back on Molina’s drive over his head, misplayed the ball into a two-base error. Two runs scored in the inning, and the Angels led, 7-1.

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia lobbied the official scorer after the game in an effort to get the two errors changed to hits, but the calls stood.

“If those balls aren’t hits,” he said, “there’s going to be a lot of .200 hitters in this game.”

Anderson agreed. “As an outfielder, I know what that play is like, and it’s a hit,” he said. “But you know what their intent is--they don’t want to give the pitcher earned runs. Official scorers are supposed to be impartial, but they’re not.”

Higginson disagreed. “I should have made the play,” he said, “and obviously the official scorer thought I should have made it.”

The bottom line: They were plays the Tigers could have--and probably should have--made but didn’t, and that proved costly on a day when Washburn, after a shaky start, had excellent stuff.

Washburn walked Roger Cedeno and Higginson in the first, and though he struck out Tony Clark and Dean Palmer to escape the jam, he needed 23 pitches to finish the inning. From the second through sixth innings, Washburn retired 13 in a row.

The difference? “I threw strikes,” Washburn grinned. “That’s my strategy, get them off balance, and then they’re surprised when I throw strikes.”

After three subpar starts to open the season, Washburn has given up four earned runs, eight hits and struck out 15 in 14 innings of his last two starts. He lost his last game, 2-0, to the White Sox on Tuesday.

“I knew that last game was an aberration for our offense,” Washburn said. “I don’t need 14 runs all the time. Somewhere in the middle would be really good.”