Colon Again Puts Stop to Angel Skid

The Angels had hoped in obtaining Bartolo Colon to get a staff ace who would extend winning streaks. Yet, not even three weeks into the season, the Angels have twice handed the burly right-hander the ball and asked him to end a losing streak.

Colon performed admirably in less than ideal circumstances again Thursday afternoon, pitching five quality innings during the Angels’ 7-5 victory over the Texas Rangers in front of 30,725 at Angel Stadium.

The 100-pitch outing helped the Angels halt a season-high three-game skid and move back to the .500 mark as they head into a weekend series with the American League West-leading Oakland Athletics, whom they trail by two games.

Colon was not as sharp as he had been April 11, when he ended a two-game Angel losing streak by pitching eight strong innings against the Rangers.

But he pitched well enough to improve to 3-1, giving up five hits and three runs.

“He didn’t have his best stuff,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of Colon, who threw 60 of his pitches for strikes. “His ball-strike ratio was not good, and he was having trouble getting the ball in consistent spots, but he was good enough to go five innings and hold the lead.”

Colon gave up his fourth and fifth homers of the season, a two-run blast by Laynce Nix and a solo shot by David Dellucci, who homered again in the eighth inning, recording his first multi-homer game. But he appeared sharper as his outing progressed.

He recorded his only 1-2-3 inning in the fifth and displayed nice glove work, snaring a sharp grounder off the bat of Eric Young.

Colon, who has not pitched after an Angel victory this season, said through an interpreter that he had felt a little slow coming off the mound on his delivery after the first inning. The Rangers also contributed to his premature exit by working a lot of deep counts and fouling off numerous pitches.

“I’m proud of the way our hitters approached Colon,” Texas Manager Buck Showalter said. “To get him out of the game after five innings was pretty impressive.”

Said Colon: “They made me work hard and throw a lot of pitches. They made me earn it today.”

Troy Glaus and Jeff DaVanon provided the big blows for the Angels off Texas starter Chan Ho Park, Glaus slamming a three-run homer to left in the first and DaVanon adding a solo shot to right-center in the fifth.

Home plate umpire Randy Marsh warned Park and both dugouts in the third after Park hit Glaus with a pitch on the left arm, but nothing more serious developed.

After spotting the Angels three runs in the first, the Rangers cut their deficit to one in the second on Nix’s two-run homer to right-center. But the Angels came right back with three more runs in the bottom of the inning.

Jose Molina led off with a single to left and went to third on Chone Figgins’ double to right.

One out later, David Eckstein hit a routine grounder to third baseman Hank Blalock, who bobbled the ball for an error, allowing Molina to score for a 4-2 Angel lead.

After Figgins and Eckstein worked a double steal, Figgins moving to third and Eckstein to second, Darin Erstad stroked a run-scoring single to right. DaVanon’s sacrifice fly to left scored Eckstein to make it 6-2.

Dellucci homered to right on a full count in the third, then homered to right off reliever Ben Weber in the eighth, pulling the Rangers to within 7-4. Young made it 7-5 after singling to left-center, taking third when the ball bounced past Figgins for a two-base error and scoring on Nix’s groundout.

Figgins got the Angels out of the inning when he caught Adrian Gonzalez’s drive to the warning track in left-center after a long run. Closer Troy Percival pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save.

“You’re going to make errors,” said Figgins, who started in center after Garret Anderson had been scratched from the lineup with stiffness in his upper back. “You just have to come back and try to make the next play.”