Angels Slam the Door

All that little ball can drive an opponent a little nuts, and the Angels seemed to have the Oakland Athletics’ heads spinning a bit Tuesday night with an early gnat-like attack that included a perfectly executed hit-and-run play, a suicide squeeze, a walk and a broken-bat single.

But when it comes to burying an opponent, to sapping almost every ounce of fight out of another team, there’s nothing like a well-timed grand slam.

Vladimir Guerrero provided just such a dagger, capping a five-run second inning with his third career grand slam to lead the Angels to a 9-2 victory over the A’s in the opener of a highly anticipated three-game series in McAfee Coliseum.

Right-hander John Lackey, continuing his evolution from erratic young starter to potential staff ace, cooled the sizzling A’s with seven shutout innings, giving up five hits and striking out six, and the Angels gained the upper hand on the A’s for at least one night, taking a one-game lead over Oakland in the American League West.

“He left a split-fingered fastball over the plate, and Vlad was ready,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said of the Rich Harden pitch that Guerrero hammered. “Obviously, it’s big when you can get Vlad up there in that situation, and he broke the game open. That’s the kind of talent he is. It was a big at-bat, and he came through.”

Harden appeared to have the advantage in the at-bat when Guerrero fouled off an 0-and-1 fastball, a pitch that left Guerrero smiling and shaking his head because he thought he should have crushed it. Guerrero then fouled off an 0-and-2 pitch before driving his 22nd home run of the season over the left-center field wall.

“I took some good swings at a couple of fastballs; that’s why I was shaking my head,” Guerrero, who has 42 runs batted in over his last 37 games, said through an interpreter. “I was looking for a mistake, and he threw a splitter. It stayed up, and I got good wood on it.”

The A’s didn’t get good wood on many of Lackey’s pitches. Lackey, who improved to 10-4 and has won four straight decisions, ran into trouble twice, allowing Oakland to put two on with two outs in the fifth and sixth innings, but he got Jason Kendall to fly to center, ending the fifth, and Nick Swisher to ground to second, ending the sixth.

“In order to beat him you’ve got to stay close to him, get his pitch count up and try to get him in the fifth or sixth inning, because he’s as overpowering as they get early in the game,” Oakland Manager Ken Macha said of Lackey. “Obviously, we didn’t get to him.”

The A’s were coming off a three-game sweep of Kansas City in which they outscored the Royals, 27-1, Saturday and Sunday, extending their record to 20-4 since the All-Star break and 37-8 over their last 45 games.

Having erased all of a 12 1/2 -game division deficit since May 29, the A’s were brimming with confidence entering this showdown against the Angels.

But the A’s seemed to have a bad case of stage fright in the first two innings Tuesday, committing as many errors (two) as they had in their previous 15 games combined and digging themselves a seven-run hole.

After Chone Figgins doubled to open the game and took third on Orlando Cabrera’s single, Oakland second baseman Mark Ellis bobbled Darin Erstad’s potential double-play grounder and threw late to first, Figgins scoring and Cabrera taking second. Cabrera scored on Guerrero’s broken-bat single to left.

Harden escaped the first with a 2-0 deficit, but the 23-year-old Canadian right-hander crumbled in the second. Steve Finley struck out to open the inning but reached on a wild pitch, and Adam Kennedy’s hit-and-run single to right moved Finley to third. Figgins flied to shallow left, the runners holding, and Cabrera dropped a squeeze bunt a little too firmly back to the mound.

Harden appeared to have a shot at Finley at the plate, but he fumbled the ball, everyone was safe, and the Angels were up, 3-0. Erstad followed with a chopper up the middle, another potential double-play ball, but Harden stuck out his pitching hand and deflected the ball to the vacant shortstop hole, Erstad reaching on the single to load the bases.

Guerrero’s grand slam made it 7-0. Harden, 4-0 with a 2.57 earned run average in five starts since the All-Star break, blanked the Angels on one hit from the third through sixth innings but suffered his first loss since July 7.

“They cracked the door open with a couple of plays they didn’t make,” Scioscia said, “but the top of our order did a good job, and Vlad got the big hit.”