Bart System Works Fine in Bay Area

This was vintage Bartolo Colon, old-school Bartolo Colon, the Bartolo Colon the Angels remember from his Cleveland days, when the burly right-hander got stronger as the game went on, scorching radar guns well into the later innings.

Colon’s 99th and final pitch of Friday night’s start against Oakland was clocked at 95 mph and struck out Erubiel Durazo looking to end the seventh inning. The previous batter, Scott Hatteberg, struck out swinging at a 97-mph fastball.

Those were the finishing touches on one of Colon’s most dominating performances in his two seasons as an Angel, a seven-inning, one-run, two-hit, five-strikeout gem that led the Angels to a 6-1 victory over the Athletics before 23,283 in McAfee Coliseum.

Colon outdueled Oakland ace Barry Zito and stopped a four-game skid in which Angel starting pitchers were tagged for 21 earned runs in 22 1/3 innings. The Angels broke open a one-run game with a four-run ninth highlighted by Steve Finley’s first home run as an Angel, a prodigious blast into the second deck in right field off A’s reliever Juan Cruz.

In a stark contrast to his last start, a 6 2/3 -inning, six-run, 11-hit stint in Sunday’s 8-3 loss to Kansas City, Colon retired the first nine batters and the last 10 he faced Friday night and allowed only two baserunners on the two hits he yielded in the fourth.

“Bart usually starts off slowly, but he came out of the chute with good stuff, and I think he had more in the tank when he came out,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He threw the ball as well in the seventh inning as he did all night. That’s encouraging.”

There was some cause for concern. On a pitch to Marco Scutaro in the third, Colon landed awkwardly on his left ankle, and he aggravated the injury covering first on Scutaro’s sixth-inning grounder. Colon could have pitched the eighth, but Scioscia pulled him in favor of Scot Shields, who retired the side in order.

“I felt a little pull on the leg on the pitch in the third and felt it on the impact with the bag [in the sixth], but I’m fine,” Colon said through an interpreter. “They asked me how I felt, and it hurt a little. I respect their decision.”

An injury to his left ankle was the primary reason Colon struggled in the first half of 2004, when he went 6-8 with a 6.38 earned-run average. “But this injury is different,” Colon insisted. “It’s not as painful. It’s just a little twinge. I’m fine.”

Colon didn’t look hurt Friday night. His fastball hit 93 mph in the first inning, 96 mph in the fourth and 97 mph in the fifth. His only blemish came in the fourth, when Mark Kotsay broke up Colon’s no-hitter with a leadoff double to left and Hatteberg dropped a two-out, RBI single into right field for a 1-0 lead.

“Every pitch was exactly where I wanted it in terms of location and spin,” Colon said. “This was the best I’ve felt this year.”

It came on a night the Angels needed a top-shelf performance because Zito, who entered with an 11.57 ERA, was locating his fastball in the top portion of the strike zone and baffling the Angels with his overhand curve, shutting them out on two hits through six innings.

But the Angels rallied in the seventh when, with one out, Finley was hit by a Zito pitch for the second time in the game. Bengie Molina struck out, but Robb Quinlan, whose .150 average and shaky defense has relegated him to part-time duty at third base, lined a double into the gap in left-center to score Finley.

Darin Erstad followed with a one-hop smash to the left of third baseman Eric Chavez, who has won the last four American League Gold Glove Awards at his position. But Chavez couldn’t make the play -- the ball kicked off his body and into shallow left field for a single, scoring Quinlan for a 2-1 lead.

Chone Figgins and Vladimir Guerrero tacked on RBI singles in the ninth, but it was the blast by Finley, who entered with a .176 average, that turned a taut, 2-1 game into a 3-1 game.

“That ball was squared up about as well as you could square a ball up,” Scioscia said. “It was good to get some breathing room.”