Angels Work Out an Escape Plan

Bartolo Colon may not appear built to escape tight squeezes, but the robust right-hander wriggled out of more jams Saturday night at Angel Stadium than someone trying to get from the Southland to Las Vegas on a Friday afternoon.

Colon worked out of major messes in the first and second innings and then watched his Angel teammates pile on the runs during an 8-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox that would have temporarily quashed the team’s concerns about its purported ace had he not had to leave after the sixth with tightness in his forearm.

Colon acknowledged that it was too early to tell whether he could make his next scheduled start but said he was encouraged by recording back-to-back victories for the first time since the first week of the season.

“I’ve been lucky,” Colon, who needed 48 pitches to get through the first two innings, said through an interpreter. “But overall I’ve felt like my game is coming around. That’s been the difference these last two starts.”

Colon (7-8) retired the Red Sox in order only twice during his six innings but benefited from two double plays and got the big outs he needed against a fearsome lineup.

The resurgence of their front-of-the-rotation starter couldn’t have come at a better time for the Angels, who posted their seventh victory in nine games and fourth in five games this season against the Red Sox.

The Angels remained three games behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West but moved back to within a half-game of the Red Sox and Oakland Athletics in the wildcard standings.

Darin Erstad and Garret Anderson drove in two runs apiece and Vladimir Guerrero and Adam Kennedy each homered to lead a 13-hit attack off four Boston pitchers.

Colon looked as if he might need an offensive onslaught after issuing consecutive one-out walks in the first, prompting a chorus of boos from the sellout crowd of 43,746.

But Nomar Garciaparra bounced into a 4-6-3 double play and Colon retired the first two batters in the second to appear on the verge of a groove.

Then Gabe Kapler got things started for the Red Sox when he flared a single to center. Doug Mirabelli worked a full-count walk and Pokey Reese walked to load the bases before Colon got Johnny Damon to fly out to center to end the threat.

“I was trying to be too fine early, trying to hit the corners a little too much,” said, Colon, who gave up three hits and one run.

Said Angel pitching coach Bud Black: “He was not missing so terribly bad that he had to throw the ball down the middle. He was in and out, in and out.”

The Angels had given Colon an early cushion by scoring three first-inning runs with two out on only one hard-hit ball. David Eckstein led off with an infield single, went to second on Chone Figgins’ single to center that landed just beyond the infield dirt and took third on Jose Guillen’s two-out walk.

Erstad followed with a two-run flare to center just out of the reach of a leaping Garciaparra that extended his hitting streak to 11 games, and Tim Salmon then whacked a run-scoring line drive off Garciaparra’s glove.

Guerrero made it 4-0 in the third with his 21st homer before Jose Molina almost literally knocked Red Sox starter Tim Wakefield out of the game in the fourth. Molina smashed a line drive off the pitcher’s right shoulder that ricocheted high in the air and into Garciaparra’s glove.

Wakefield stayed in the game after being examined by a trainer, but Kennedy hit the knuckleballer’s next pitch for a homer to right-center and Wakefield (5-6) came out after retiring Anderson to end the inning.

Damon provided the only run the Red Sox could manage off Colon with his fifth-inning homer to right and added a solo shot off reliever Ramon Ortiz in the eighth.

David Ortiz, who will likely be suspended for his run-in with umpire Matt Hollowell on Friday that resulted in his ejection, homered two batters later to draw Boston to within 8-3 before Ramon Ortiz collected himself and escaped further damage.

Francisco Rodriguez struck out the side in the ninth while throwing all 10 of his pitches for strikes.