Washburn Guts It Out for Angels

Good as the Minnesota Twins are, and pesky as their lineup can be, the opposing hitters were not the primary concern of Angel left-hander Jarrod Washburn on Thursday night.

“My focus,” Washburn said, “was on not throwing up.”

As Billy Crystal used to say in his “Saturday Night Live” impersonation of actor Fernando Lamas, “It’s better to look good than to feel good.”

While battling a stomach ailment that hit him during warmups and nearly floored him after the second inning, Washburn mustered enough strength and poise to give the Angels 5 2/3 solid innings in a 3-2 victory over the Twins, ending the Angels’ losing streak at four games.

Center fielder Steve Finley, playing his first game since a strained right shoulder sidelined him June 21, keyed a three-run fifth inning with a run-scoring double, and Maicer Izturis (triple) and Adam Kennedy (single) added run-scoring hits in the fifth, as the Angels increased their American League West lead over Texas to six games.

Washburn (6-4) gave up two runs and six hits, struck out four and walked one before handing the ball to a bullpen he called “a starting pitcher’s dream.” Brendan Donnelly, Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez, who struck out two of three in the ninth for his 18th save, preserved the one-run lead.

“I felt OK all day, and as I was warming up, I didn’t feel good,” said Washburn, who threw 88 pitches. “Then it hit me hard after the second inning, when I threw up about five times. My legs were a little wobbly, and I thought I was going to throw up on the mound a few times. I just tried to make pitches and use my defense.”

Washburn gave up his two runs in the fourth, an inning Joe Mauer led off with a single. Torii Hunter reached on a one-out infield single, and Matthew LeCroy walked to load the bases. Jacque Jones singled to score Mauer, and Lew Ford’s sacrifice fly made it 2-0, but Washburn got Nick Punto to ground to second to end the inning.

The Angels staged a quick-strike rally in the top of the fifth, scoring three runs off starter Kyle Lohse in the span of four batters -- the bottom four hitters in the lineup, in fact -- to take the lead.

Juan Rivera, getting a rare start over Jeff DaVanon against a right-handed pitcher, lined a single to center to open the inning, and Finley, who singled in the top of the third and made a superb running catch to rob Juan Castro of extra bases in the bottom of the third, doubled off the wall in right to score Rivera to make it 2-1.

Izturis, who figures to relinquish the shortstop job to Orlando Cabrera when Cabrera comes off the disabled list this weekend, tripled into the gap in right-center to make it 2-2.

With the infield in, Kennedy, the No. 9 hitter who is batting .351, grounded a single through the second-base hole to score Izturis for a 3-2 lead.

The Angels went on to load the bases on Darin Erstad’s single -- a wicked liner that sent Kennedy sprawling to the turf between first and second to avoid getting hit in the head -- and Vladimir Guerrero’s walk. But Garret Anderson lined a shot right at LeCroy, the first baseman who made the catch and stepped on first for a double play.

Washburn departed after giving up two-out singles to LeCroy and Jones in the sixth, and Donnelly got Ford to fly to left, ending the inning.

Control problems -- a walk and a hit batsman -- got Donnelly in trouble in the seventh, but Shields bailed Donnelly out, getting Mauer to ground into a fielder’s choice and Bret Boone to fly to left with runners on first and third to end the inning.

Shields struck out two of three in a one-two-three eighth, and Rodriguez looked dominant in the ninth, lowering his earned-run average to 2.14 in 30 appearances.

“Minnesota’s bullpen has been right with us the last few years, but we’ll take a battle of the bullpens any day,” Shields said. “That’s not anything against those guys. That’s just the confidence we have going bullpen against bullpen. We like our odds.”

Washburn’s start ended a seven-game slump in which the Angel rotation went 1-5 with a 7.45 ERA, and the Angel bullpen had struggled of late, giving up 25 earned runs in its previous 30 innings.

“We weren’t down, we didn’t lose confidence in ourselves,” Shields said. “But it feels good to get back on track and bounce back with a win like this.”