Salmon’s Homers Go Boom

Tim Salmon twice sent the ball spinning, onward and upward, through the chilly night air Friday.

Back on earth, the noise was deafening, with a red-clad sellout crowd banging their noise-makers to create a wall of sound.

The Angels needed a bailout against the Oakland Athletics and the fans needed something to do with those red sticks, so Salmon delivered with a pair of two-run home runs to spark a 9-5 victory before 43,707, the third sellout in four games this season at Edison Field.

The Angels returned to the .500 mark, with a 5-5 record, neither frigid nor scalding as so many others have been to start the year. They could thank Salmon for getting them back to the break-even mark.

In the fourth inning, he sent a 3-and-2 pitch from Oakland starter Tim Hudson into the Angel bullpen beyond the left-field fence for a 6-2 lead.

In the eighth, after the A’s had chipped the lead to 6-5, Darin Erstad’s run-scoring groundout made it 7-5 before Salmon blasted a 2-0 pitch from reliever Micah Bowie over the wall in left-center for the final score.

Later, Salmon went into his aw-shucks routine when asked about homering off Hudson. He also wanted no part of a discussion about his apparent departure from his customary slow starts, although it was clear from his postgame smile that he was well aware that four home runs and a .313 average in nine games are pleasing statistics.

“It’s tough enough to hit him when he’s throwing 93 mph and it’s straight,” Salmon said of Hudson. “But he’s got a great break [to his sinker]. I came back to the dugout, going, ‘What am I going to do here?’ Even on the home run, it’s 3-and-2 and I’m thinking, ‘Jeez, put the ball in play.’ In my mind, he’s one of the toughest to hit.”

When someone dared to mention his fine start, Salmon smiled and said, “Next question. I’m not going to analyze it if I don’t feel great [at the plate]. I’m going to go up there and keep swinging. I’ll take some good at-bats.”

Asked how he was feeling after sitting out Thursday’s victory over the Seattle Mariners because of a groin strain, he said, “Pretty decent. I’m taking some decent swings. I don’t feel locked in yet. Or not locked in like I will later in the year.”

Salmon’s homers were two of the Angels’ 16 hits against Hudson and two relievers. Brad Fullmer and Chone Figgins each had three singles, although Fullmer’s traveled a good deal farther than the slap-hitting Figgins.

The Angels didn’t even need Troy Percival to nail down the victory. Manager Mike Scioscia left Francisco Rodriguez on the mound to pitch a 1-2-3 ninth inning after a shaky eighth and record his first major league save.

The bullpen did its job, although in less-than-spectacular fashion.

Scott Schoeneweis, who entered the game to start the sixth inning, pitched two innings and gave up only a run-scoring groundout to Chris Singleton that trimmed the Angel lead to 6-3 in the sixth.

Rodriguez took over in the eighth and struck out Jermaine Dye, but then he struggled. He walked Erubiel Durazo, gave up a two-run homer to Terrence Long that got the A’s within 6-5 and a double to Hernandez before getting Singleton to ground out and Mark Ellis to fly out.

“They told me to slow down and work on my mechanics,” Rodriguez said when asked what Scioscia and pitching coach Bud Black said during a visit to the mound to check on him after he slipped off the rubber on a pitch in the eighth.

John Lackey needed 33 pitches, and one visit from Black, to get through a rocky first inning against the surging A’s, winners of seven of their first 10 games. But Lackey (1-1) ended up pitching five innings, giving up two runs on five hits.

“Obviously, John struggled,” Scioscia said. “But it shows his heart and makeup. He wasn’t going to fold. Maybe he was too strong early, but he couldn’t get the ball in the spots he needed.”