Angels a Step Closer After 10-0 Rout of A’s

The Angels expect big things in big games from Bartolo Colon, the burly right-hander who Friday night provided the biggest return yet on the team’s $51-million investment in him, pitching the Angels to within one win of their first American League West championship since 1986.

But Alfredo Amezaga? The 5-foot-10, 165-pound, .155-hitting utility infielder whose primary role has been as a late-inning defensive replacement and who has all of three career home runs?

Colon threw seven shutout innings on three days’ rest, and Amezaga, the minimum wage-earning reserve, provided a stunning blow Friday night, a sixth-inning grand slam that helped catapult the Angels to a 10-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics in front of 47,081 in Network Associates Coliseum.

The Angels (91-69) took a one-game lead over the A’s with two games to play and can wrap up the division title and a playoff berth against the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox with a win today. Kelvim Escobar, the Angels’ most consistent pitcher all season, will oppose Oakland left-hander Barry Zito.

“The farthest we’re looking ahead is to [today],” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Momentum can change pitch to pitch, inning to inning. We’re not going to lose our focus. This game is over; we’re moving on. We still have a challenge ahead of us.”

In this season marked by so many injuries and so many contributions from unheralded players, there was no more improbable a hero Friday night than Amezaga, who earned a rare start at second, moving Chone Figgins from second to third, because Scioscia didn’t want rookie third baseman Dallas McPherson to be overwhelmed by Oakland left-hander Mark Mulder.

The Angels’ four-run rally in the second knocked Mulder out of the game. The two-inning stint dropped the erstwhile Cy Young Award candidate to 17-8 on the season and 0-4 with an 8.79 earned-run average in six starts since Sept. 4.

The Angels then loaded the bases with two out off reliever Joe Blanton in the sixth, and Amezaga, a switch-hitter who was batting .115 from the left side, stepped to the plate.

Blanton fell behind, 3-and-1, Scioscia gave Amezaga the green light, and Blanton grooved a fastball that Amezaga drove over the wall in right-center for his second grand slam this season in only three at-bats with the bases loaded.

“I was just trying to make contact and not get too jumpy,” said Amezaga, who had only 84 previous at-bats this season. “I thought it was off the wall, but then I heard the fans and thought, ‘Oh my God, it’s over the wall.’ ”

Amezaga’s first grand slam was a meaningless clout in a loss in Boston on Aug. 31, a shot that turned a 10-3 game into a 10-7 game. Friday night’s shot was far more significant, turning a 4-0 lead into an 8-0 cushion.

The huge lead allowed Scioscia to clear his bench, and Andres Galarraga, the 43-year-old slugger who has overcome two bouts with cancer, knocked home run No. 399 over the left-center field wall in the seventh before being mobbed by teammates in the Angel dugout.

“All those guys look up to him in that room,” Scioscia said of Galarraga. “He has an incredible presence. When he hit the home run, everyone felt great about it.”

There were good vibes all around for the Angels: Center fielder Garret Anderson, who seemed doubtful because of a knee injury that sidelined him Thursday, started and sparked a four-run second inning by beating out an infield single.

Shortstop David Eckstein ended an 0-for-15 streak with a double and a single and had a run-scoring fielder’s choice in the second. Adam Riggs, starting in place of suspended left fielder Jose Guillen, doubled during the second-inning rally.

Figgins tripled and scored during the inning, and first baseman Darin Erstad, who had an RBI bunt single in the second, made an over-the-shoulder, running catch of Eric Byrnes’ foul pop in the first.

And then there was Colon, who has won 13 of his last 18 games and emerged as the ace the Angels envisioned when they signed him this winter.

Colon (18-12) was masterful Friday night, giving up three singles and pitching out of his only jam by freezing Adam Melhuse with a 93-mph tailing fastball on the inside corner for called strike three with two on to end the fifth.

“I had no feel for the changeup early on, so I stuck with fastballs and cut fastballs,” Colon said. “I threw out the curve and changeup and went with the hard stuff.”

So did Amezaga. Colon and the little infielder provided a one-two punch that could go a long way toward knocking the A’s out of playoff contention.