Angels Like It Rare in 11-2 Victory

The first hint that something out of the ordinary might happen in the SkyDome on Saturday came in the fifth inning, when Tim Salmon poked a double into the left-field corner off Toronto pitcher Ted Lilly, ending Salmon’s 0-for-40 drought against left-handers this season.

By the time the Angels were through pounding Lilly and reliever Kerry Ligtenberg in an 11-2 victory over the Blue Jays in front of a crowd of 20,635, there were a number of rare achievements to reflect on.

The Angels scored 11 runs in support of right-hander Kelvim Escobar after scoring 11 runs total in Escobar’s previous six starts and four runs in his five losses this season. Escobar evened his record at 5-5 with a solid, two-run, five-hit effort in 5 1/3 innings against his former team, striking out nine and walking two.

The Angels scored seven two-out runs in the seventh, the most they scored in an inning since a seven-run second at Baltimore on May 14, and they clinched their second straight series victory, the first time since sweeping Detroit and Tampa Bay from May 3-9 that the Angels have won two series in a row.

Chone Figgins, who failed to score runners from third with less than two outs three times Friday night, capped a four-run fifth with a three-run double off Lilly, as the Angels finally found a way to beat a pesky lefty who, as an Oakland pitcher, went 4-0 with a 1.09 earned-run average against them last season.

Figgins also sparked the seventh-inning outburst with a triple, and Bengie Molina capped the rally with his second career grand slam. The Angels, who struggled in the clutch during their June fade, went seven for 13 with runners in scoring position and pulled within 2 1/2 games of Texas in the American League West.

Asked whether he thought the Angels had emerged from their lengthy funk, Salmon, who made his first career start in left field Saturday, said, “I kind of think so. The way we’re swinging the bats, the way Bartolo [Colon] pitched Friday, we finally scored some runs for Escobar.... We’re a good team. We could have swept Chicago, and if we sweep here, all of a sudden it’s a great trip. It would be nice to go into the [All-Star] break on a high note.”

It has been a season of low notes for Salmon, who has battled knee and shoulder injuries and who was hitless in 40 at-bats against left-handers until his breakthrough double in the fifth Saturday.

“How about that? All things come to an end some day,” said Salmon, a career .271 hitter against left-handers. “It was one of those weird things you never anticipate happening, but it does. Today was a good time for the hit because it started a big inning.”

But not before the Angels had a little fun at Salmon’s expense.

“We were trying to get the ball,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We didn’t get it, but we were going to get the ball and present it to him. It was all in good humor. He took the kidding in stride.”

The slump, Salmon said, was frustrating “because most of my at-bats are against left-handers, and you want to feel like you’re contributing. It was weighing on me, because I wasn’t being productive.”

Molina followed Salmon’s hit with a single, Shane Halter walked, David Eckstein hit a run-scoring single, and Figgins cleared the bases with his double to give the Angels a 4-1 lead.

Reed Johnson’s run-scoring single in the bottom of the fifth pulled the Blue Jays to within two runs. Escobar was pulled after striking out Alex Rios with a 95-mph fastball, his 105th pitch of the game, with a runner on second in the sixth.

Reliever Brendan Donnelly retired Josh Phelps on a groundout and Dave Berg on a strikeout to end the sixth, and the Angels erupted during the seventh, which included run-scoring singles by Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Guillen. The Angels have scored 42 runs in five games on this trip to Chicago and Toronto.

“I haven’t seen that kind of support all year,” Escobar said. “It’s good to get that many runs. You have the luxury of making mistakes.”

Escobar, who spent 11 years in the Toronto organization before signing with the Angels last winter, said he was so excited about his first start against his former team that he “couldn’t sleep” Friday night.

“At times I was too excited and tried to overthrow, or I tried to be too fine,” Escobar said. “But I was able to focus, calm myself down and make pitches. It wasn’t easy controlling my emotions, because I spent my whole career with the Blue Jays.”