Angels Avoid a Rain Check

The Angels punched out early Sunday night, needing only a part-time effort to complete a three-game sweep of the lowly Kansas City Royals with a 5-0 victory that was called because of rain after five innings.

Jarrod Washburn went the distance -- for lack of a better term -- and was credited with the second shutout of his seven-year career after limiting the Royals to four hits and working his way out of several jams.

“It’s great, isn’t it?” Washburn said with an impish grin. “[Manager Mike] Scioscia already told me he’s putting an asterisk next to it, but it still counts.”

It also counts in the standings because the teams completed five innings when the rain came, causing a 1-hour, 46-minute delay before the umpires, not seeing any break in the weather, called the game.

The Angels, who extended their Kauffman Stadium winning streak to nine, won for the 13th time in 16 games to push their American League West lead to 7 1/2 games over the Texas Rangers.

They reached the season’s halfway point with a 50-31 record, tying Washington for the third-best record in baseball and setting a 100-win pace despite losing six front-line players -- Vladimir Guerrero, Kelvim Escobar, Adam Kennedy, Francisco Rodriguez, Bengie Molina and Steve Finley -- to the disabled list during parts of the first half.

“We’re a good team,” said Washburn, who improved to 5-3. “We expected to be playing this well. We didn’t start out that good, but we’re pitching good, hitting good and playing great defense. There’s still room for improvement, though. There’s a lot of baseball left. Hopefully, we can keep this going.”

The Angels rank third in the major leagues with a 3.55 earned-run average, third in the league with a .275 batting average and lead the major leagues with a .318 average with runners in scoring position. They’ve gone 13 games without committing an error and rank second in the league with a .986 fielding percentage.

“That’s a tribute to the guys off the bench who have played great,” Kennedy said. “That’s what it takes to stay on top all year.”

Chone Figgins, Jeff DaVanon, Juan Rivera and Jose Molina have made significant contributions, but the latest reserve to shine has been shortstop Maicer Izturis, who had a single and a run-scoring double Sunday night, is batting .435 (20 for 46) over the last 11 games and has played superb defense in place of the injured Orlando Cabrera.

“He’s a heck of a good player,” Washburn said of Izturis, acquired with Rivera from Washington in the Jose Guillen trade last winter. “I’m surprised [the Nationals] let him go after seeing what I’m seeing.”

Izturis teamed with Washburn to turn a key double play on Joe McEwing’s grounder to the mound with runners on first and third to end the second inning.

Washburn struck out Terrence Long with two on to end the first, and struck out Emil Brown with a runner on third to end the third.

The Angels built a five-run lead by the time rolling thunder, streak lightning and rain filled the skies, forcing the grounds crew to cover the infield after Kennedy’s leadoff single in the sixth.

Just moments before Kennedy’s at-bat, swirling winds blew hundreds of napkins and hot dog wrappers from the upper deck onto the field, creating an eerie scene. Kennedy singled through a maze of debris and raindrops before umpires called for the tarpaulin.

“That was pretty fun,” Kennedy said. “I’ve never been in a situation that crazy before. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

Although the sixth inning wasn’t completed, Kennedy’s hit counted, raising his average to .347, which would rank him third in the league if he had enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title.

The Angels scored in the second inning on Bengie Molina’s bases-loaded, double-play grounder; Izturis doubled home Garret Anderson and scored on Molina’s two-out single for a 3-0 lead in the fourth; and Vladimir Guerrero’s single and doubles by Anderson and DaVanon made it 5-0 in the fifth.

Washburn retired the last eight batters he faced, and the Angels held the Royals scoreless in all but one of 23 innings of a series that completed a 5-2 trip through Texas and Kansas City.