Angels Get Jammed Up Against Rangers

The Angels scored four runs in the first inning Thursday, three on a pair of home runs, and the temptation was to predict another horror show for Texas Ranger pitching. Ryan Drese, who entered the game with a frightening 135.00 earned-run average, actually lowered that mark to 60.90 after the disastrous inning, but he wasn’t exactly the sharpest pitcher the Angels had seen this season.

“We had him on the ropes,” right fielder Tim Salmon said. “You put another run or two across early, it might have shortened his day.”

But the right-hander shut out the Angels over the next six innings, escaping jams in the third and fifth, and gave the Rangers ample time to rally for a 9-7 victory before 18,492 at the Ballpark in Arlington.

“They have a terrific lineup over there,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said, “and if you give them enough opportunities without getting a game in hand or getting to a certain set of relievers you like, you could be in for trouble. We were today.”

Carl Everett and Hank Blalock homered and Ryan Christenson drove in three runs as the Rangers took three of four games in the series. Texas could have swept the Angels had second baseman Michael Young fielded a Scott Spiezio grounder that went through his legs Wednesday, allowing the Angels to mount a seven-run rally.

“It’s big,” Texas first baseman Rafael Palmeiro said of Thursday’s victory. “It’s even bigger after the way we lost the game last night. We were able to bounce back.”

And so the Angels (8-8) are only one game ahead of the Rangers (7-9) in the tightly bunched American League West heading into a three-game series against the first-place Seattle Mariners that begins tonight at Edison Field. Everett hit four of his five home runs during the three games he started in the series, including a two-run shot in the fourth inning Thursday that cut the Angels’ 4-0 lead in half. Palmeiro and Blalock followed with consecutive one-out singles off Angel starter Mickey Callaway, who walked Kevin Mench one out later to load the bases. Christenson then tied the score with a two-run single to center.

Callaway, who pitched behind in the count to every hitter he faced in the fourth, was pulled in the fifth after Alex Rodriguez singled to put runners at first and third with one out. Reliever Scott Schoeneweis continued his recent struggles, allowing Everett to score on a pickoff throw that sailed wide of first baseman Brad Fullmer.

Things only got worse for Schoeneweis, who hit Palmeiro with a pitch, walked Blalock on five pitches and gave up a two-run single to Mark Teixeira that made it 7-4. Christenson had a run-scoring single later in the inning off Ben Weber and Blalock homered off Scot Shields in the seventh to account for Texas’ final two runs.

The Angels rallied in the ninth with three runs off relievers C.J. Nitkowski and Ugueth Urbina, but Urbina retired pinch-hitter Bengie Molina, the potential tying run, on a fly ball to center to end the game.

It didn’t look as if the Rangers would get a chance to use their closer after Drese gave up a leadoff homer to David Eckstein and a two-run shot to Troy Glaus in the first inning. But Drese, using a nasty slider that baffled the Angel right-handed hitters, escaped the only two other jams he faced before turning the ball over to the bullpen.

In the third, Drese struck out Benji Gil with two out and runners on second and third. In the fifth, Drese intentionally walked Spiezio with two out to load the bases to get to Gil, who at that point was 0 for 13. Drese prevailed with another strikeout.

The pitcher who had surrendered five earned runs in one-third of inning against Seattle in his first start of the season left the game Thursday with an 11.05 ERA. Still not pretty, but a marked improvement.

“That was a terrific job that Drese did for being on the verge of getting taken out of the game early, to settle in and throw as many pitches as he did and really come back and put up all those zeros,” Scioscia said. “It gave their offense a chance to generate, and they did.”