Angels Rally Late for Win

The Angel bats were on the verge of producing nothing more than another silent night Thursday at Angel Stadium, leaving a near-capacity crowd little to cheer for except the moment when Milwaukee Brewer broadcaster Bob Uecker obliged the Kiss Cam and pecked his unsuspecting partner on the cheek.

Then Casey Kotchman, he of the .209 batting average in 91 career major league at-bats, stepped to the plate in the seventh inning and delivered a two-run double to right field. Jose Guillen and Jeff DaVanon followed with consecutive run-scoring singles in the eighth to give the Angels a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over the Brewers before 39,425.

A collection of hitters that had scored three runs over its previous 47 innings finally found its stroke, scoring four runs in two innings to end a season-high five-game losing streak. The Angels pulled into a second-place tie with the Texas Rangers in the American League West, a half-game behind the idle Oakland Athletics.

“I’m just glad we were able to win the game and get off the losing skid and get back to winning ways,” DaVanon said.

Center fielder Garret Anderson, playing for the first time since April 21 after being sidelined by early inflammatory arthritis in his upper back, got the rally started by hitting a single to right to lead off the seventh. DaVanon drew a one-out walk to chase Milwaukee starter Wes Obermueller before reliever Brooks Kieschnick yielded Kotchman’s double that drew the Angels to within 4-3.

Pinch-hitter Tim Salmon and Adam Kennedy drew consecutive walks to load the bases, the latter doing so on the 18th pitch of an epic at-bat against reliever Luis Vizcaino. But Vizcaino struck out David Eckstein and retired Chone Figgins on a fly ball to right to end the threat.

“We got some key hits tonight,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said, “but we probably should have come with a little more offense than we did.”

Milwaukee Manager Ned Yost elected to start the eighth with reliever Jeff Bennett, who walked Vladimir Guerrero and Anderson before giving way to Mike Adams. But Adams allowed the Angels to tie the game on Guillen’s single through the left side of the infield and to take the lead on DaVanon’s bloop single.

Angel fill-in closer Francisco Rodriguez pitched a scoreless ninth to record his third save and first since Troy Percival went on the disabled list with a strained right forearm, but it was anything but routine.

Pinch-hitter Ben Grieve hit a one-out single to left, and pinch-runner Trent Durrington moved to second when Rodriguez walked Craig Counsell. Scott Podsednik grounded into what appeared to be a game-ending double play, but catcher Josh Paul was called for interference when he extended his glove into the path of Podsednik’s swing, allowing the Brewers to load the bases. Junior Spivey grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.

Kevin Gregg (3-0) contributed two scoreless innings as the Angel bullpen bailed out starter Aaron Sele, who had dropped his teammates into a 4-0 hole in the third when he surrendered a run-scoring single to Spivey and a three-run homer to Geoff Jenkins. Sele had to leave after six innings with fatigue in his right shoulder.

“I didn’t quite have the life on my heater,” said Sele, who started feeling the fatigue in the fourth. “I’m throwing the ball and there’s no pain, but it just doesn’t come out with the same velocity.”

The Angels broke through for a run in the fourth when Guerrero hit a leadoff single and eventually scored on Guillen’s groundout to first.

Aggressive baserunning cost the Angels at least one run. Figgins was thrown out in the first trying to stretch a single into a double.