Angels Are All Powerful in 9-5 Win

One Angel looked as though he wouldn’t make it out of the first inning, one looked as if he wouldn’t make it past the third, and another wasn’t supposed to play in the first place -- the original lineup posted Friday afternoon did not include his name.

But it was this improbable trio -- pitcher Bartolo Colon, right fielder Vladimir Guerrero and designated hitter Troy Glaus -- who led the Angels to a stirring 9-5 victory over Texas on Friday night, pulling them within one game of Oakland in the American League West with 15 games remaining.

A sellout crowd of 43,343 in Angel Stadium saw the Angels snap out of a three-game funk with 15 hits, including a season-high four home runs, and Colon rebound from a shaky three-run first inning to blank a potent Ranger lineup over the next six.

Guerrero, who limped home after aggravating a knee injury while scoring in the third, hit two mammoth home runs, one in the fifth inning and one in the eighth, giving him 32 homers and 114 runs batted in on the season.

Glaus, a late addition to the lineup when Garret Anderson was scratched because of a knee injury, hit a run-scoring single in the third and a solo home run in the fifth, fueling a power surge for a team that had failed to homer in its previous three games.

The Eck factor helped -- leadoff batter David Eckstein had three hits and scored two runs -- and second baseman Adam Kennedy had three hits, including a tying, two-out, run-scoring single in the third.

Adding a finishing touch to the evening, the Angels returned to their clubhouse in time to watch the final inning of Seattle’s 6-3 victory over the A’s.

“This thing is going to go back and forth the whole way,” said Manager Mike Scioscia, whose Angels have six more games against the A’s. “We’re not going to get too excited or too down about any one game. As we get to the end, each team that wants to get to the playoffs has their destiny in their own hands. We’re going to play enough games against the club ahead of us to have a chance.”

It appeared Colon might not give the Angels a chance Friday night. Four batters into the game, the right-hander had given up a home run to Hank Blalock, a single to Michael Young and a two-run homer to Mark Teixeira, giving the Rangers a 3-0 lead and providing a painful flashback to the stretch from May to early July when Colon went 2-7 with an 8.19 earned-run average and gave up 21 home runs in 13 starts.

That memory lingered for about as long as it took one of Colon’s 96-mph fastballs to reach the plate. Colon did not give up a hit the rest of the evening, retiring 20 of the next 22 batters, striking out seven and walking two, before being replaced by Brendan Donnelly to start the eighth.

Colon (16-11) struck out the side in the second and fourth innings, and his seven-inning, three-hit, three-run performance was the 11th quality start for the Angels in the last 13 games. “The key was letting him know there were still a lot of innings left for us to catch up,” Guerrero said through a translator. “He put the first inning behind him quickly.”

With Guerrero’s help. The right fielder’s two-out, run-scoring single in the first made it 3-1, and his two-out walk in the third sparked a two-run rally. Jose Guillen was hit by a pitch, and with the runners going on a full-count pitch, Glaus lined a single to left that nearly hit Guerrero, who hurdled the ball on his way to third.

Guerrero rounded third and scored but hobbled back to the dugout, the trainers working on his left knee while Kennedy singled home the tying run. “I thought he would have to come out of the game,” Scioscia said of Guerrero.

Did Guerrero agree? “It never went through my mind,” he said. “I told my manager I’m not coming out.”

It’s good to be assertive. Guerrero, who had two homers in his previous 21 games, crushed a Chan Ho Park slider over the left-field wall in the fifth and a Frank Francisco fastball to left in the eighth.

Glaus hit his 15th home run in the fifth, and Guillen, who had one RBI in his previous 13 games, hit his 27th homer in the seventh. Glaus was two for 20 with one RBI in his previous six games, but thanks to Anderson’s injury, he got a chance to break out of his slump Friday night.

“G.A. must have known something we didn’t,” Scioscia said, “because Troy was ready to play today.”