Angels Pass Rocket Science

Roger Clemens had dominated the Angels throughout his 20-year career, going 29-8 with a 2.43 earned-run average in 45 previous starts against them, so how did Angel Manager Mike Scioscia prepare his struggling team for Saturday night’s game against the Houston ace?

By canceling batting practice.

“The guys have been taking a lot of extra batting practice, and sometimes you need a break mentally,” Scioscia said. “We’ve been grinding it out, trying too hard.”

They tried a little easier Saturday night, and the result was a 6-4 interleague victory over the Astros in front of a sellout crowd of 42,449 at Minute Maid Park, a game in which the Angels banged out 13 hits and scored more runs than they had in their previous three games combined.

The Angels pounded Clemens for five runs and nine hits in 4 2/3 innings, handing the six-time Cy Young Award winner only his second loss of the season. Vladimir Guerrero hit his 250th career home run, Jose Guillen homered, and Darin Erstad, Chone Figgins, Garret Anderson, Robb Quinlan and Adam Kennedy had two hits.

The Angels applied constant pressure on the Astros, putting the leadoff runner on base six times. In their previous two games, only three Angel leadoff men reached base in 18 innings.

“Hopefully we won’t take batting practice for a week and we keep doing this,” Guillen said. “That was a great idea.”

Pitcher Ramon Ortiz made a triumphant return to the rotation, giving up three hits in six shutout innings to improve to 3-5, but the Angels needed some clutch relief work from Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez to survive a late-game scare.

Ortiz was pulled after six innings with a 6-0 lead, but Kevin Gregg was roughed up for his third consecutive outing, giving up four runs and three hits and retiring only two batters in the seventh.

The right-hander who had a 1.32 ERA in his first 24 appearances has been torched for 10 earned runs and nine hits, including two home runs, in three innings of his last three appearances.

Jeff Bagwell’s solo home run and Craig Biggio’s two-run double off Gregg pulled Houston within 6-3. Shields gave up a run-scoring single to the first batter he faced, Jose Vizcaino, and walked Lance Berkman, putting runners on first and second. But the right-hander got cleanup batter Jeff Kent to swing at a full-count slider in the dirt for an inning-ending strikeout.

“It was a ball,” Shields said. “I got lucky he swung because if he didn’t, the bases were loaded and Bagwell was coming up.”

Bagwell led off the eighth with a double, and Mike Lamb walked, but Shields retired Jason Lane on a pop to first -- Astro fans probably wondered why Manager Jimy Williams didn’t call for a bunt -- and retired Brad Ausmus on a fielder’s choice.

Scioscia then summoned Rodriguez, who struck out Eric Bruntlett with a 97-mph fastball to end the eighth and retired the side in order in the ninth for his sixth save.

“Frankie came in and bailed me out at the end,” Shields said.

Thanks to a rare outburst by the Angel offense, which had scored 31 runs in the previous 12 games, Angel pitchers had a little cushion. That it came against Clemens was nothing short of shocking.

After shunning retirement to sign with his hometown Astros, Clemens won his first nine decisions and took a 2.46 ERA, third-best in the National League, into Saturday’s game. The 41-year-old right-hander seemed to have his good stuff, and was intimidating to at least one Angel, No. 2 batter Figgins.

“He’s big,” Figgins said, when asked his impression of Clemens. “He’s wide, and he’s tall, and then he throws the ball, and all you hear is pffft. I knew he threw hard, but you could hear the ball coming out of his hand.”

The Angels responded by turning up the volume with their bats. Erstad led off the game with a double, and Quinlan led off the second with a double, eventually scoring on Kennedy’s single.

Figgins opened the third with a triple, scored on Guerrero’s sacrifice fly, and Guillen hit an opposite-field home run to right, his 12th of the season, for a 3-0 lead.

Erstad (single) and Figgins (double) opened the fifth with hits and scored on Guerrero’s groundout and Anderson’s single. Guerrero lined a homer to left off reliever Mike Gallo in the seventh.

“You take a lot of pride going against a Hall of Famer -- you want to have good at-bats,” Figgins said. “I can go home and tell my big brother I got a hit off Roger Clemens.”