Angels Are Simply Divine in 10-1 Win Over Tigers

The good folks at St. John’s Episcopal Church, across the street from Comerica Park, were thoughtful enough to hang a large white banner near the front door of the church.

“Pray Here for the Tigers,” the banner reads.

Couldn’t hurt. The Tigers grounded into a double play, dropped a fly ball, threw two wild pitches and gave up three unearned runs Wednesday--all in the first two innings.

The Tigers are so bad right now, and the Angels are so good, that Angel Manager Mike Scioscia actually won an argument with the umpires during a 10-1 victory Wednesday.

“That was pretty good,” first baseman Scott Spiezio said. “He goes out there a lot, but he doesn’t come back a winner too often.”

David Eckstein and Brad Fullmer hit home runs to support Aaron Sele, who delivered his best start of the season as the Angels won their seventh consecutive game. They also won for the 16th time in 18 tries, the best 18-game run in team history and one in which they have outscored opponents, 143-50.

If they win tonight, the Angels will have two eight-game winning streaks in the same season for the first time in team history.

“This is the type of team we knew we had in spring training,” Sele said. “You don’t expect to go on a run like this one. But the combination of steady defense, steady pitching and steady offense is what everybody saw in spring training.”

The Tigers, steady only in their consistently poor play, lost their seventh consecutive game and own the worst record in the major leagues, worse even than the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Milwaukee Brewers.

Sele, billed as a consumer of innings when the Angels signed him to a $24-million free-agent contract in December, pitched seven innings for the first time this season. Sele had pitches to spare in the sixth and seventh innings because he did not exhaust himself in the first.

He had given up at least two runs in the first inning of each of his last three starts, and this one appeared no better when the Tigers put runners on first and third with one out in the first inning.

But Dmitri Young grounded into a double play, and as Sele returned to the dugout his teammates rose to greet him with laughter and high-fives on the occasion of a scoreless first inning.

Sele did not give up another hit until the fifth inning. He did not give up a run until the sixth inning, by which time the Angels had scored seven. Sele (4-2) gave up six hits over seven innings, winning his fourth consecutive start and lowering his earned-run average to 5.10.

“This was definitely his best start,” Scioscia said. “We knew it was going to come. But he’s been keeping us in ballgames, even if he gets scored on early.”

Eckstein is the only Angel to start every game in the field this season, and Scioscia talked before the game of the possibility of giving him a day off. He entered Wednesday’s game in a one-for-13 slump, and his batting average had dropped to a season-low .273.

Cancel the day off. He reached base three times, on a walk, single and the home run.

The homer was his third of the season, more than every teammate except Garret Anderson, Troy Glaus and Tim Salmon. He had four home runs last season, ranking 11th on the team. Jeff DaVanon, who started 25 games, hit more.

“It’s not something I’m going to be doing. Don’t expect that from me,” said Eckstein, who pointed out that he has hit all three of his home runs down the left-field line.

“Those balls aren’t clearing by much,” he said.

Scioscia won his argument when he pointed out that Bengie Molina should have been allowed to advance two bases, not one, when a wild pitch bounded into the Detroit dugout. Umpires based their original ruling on Detroit catcher Michael Rivera’s stopping the ball before it entered the dugout, then consulted with each other and agreed that Rivera’s force had carried him--and hence the ball--into the dugout.