Watching Their Backs

The late, great Satchel Paige offered the advice that you should never look back, something might be gaining on you.

No doubt the Hall of Famer would repeat the refrain for the Angels’ benefit today.

That thundering sound closing in on the first-place team in the American League West? It’s the Oakland Athletics. Again.

The A’s, the hottest second-half team in baseball this century by virtue of their .651 winning percentage after the All-Star break since 2000, shut out the suddenly punchless Angels, 3-0, Wednesday night at Angel Stadium.

“They do it every year,” Angel first baseman Darin Erstad said of the A’s getting hot.

In winning the rubber game, thus winning their 14th series in their last 16 after losing 12 of their first 17, the A’s (49-45) jumped ahead of Texas into second place and pulled within 6 1/2 games of the Angels (56-39).

“We couldn’t get the big hit we needed; that was the story,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said.

“I don’t know if everybody’s cold right now. They pitched a couple of good games against us.”

The A’s have pitched more than a few good games of late.

Oakland, which has a 2.57 earned-run average over its last 28 games, has won 18 of 23, and the A’s are a major league-best 32-13 since May 30.

Against the Angels, they used their familiar “Moneyball” formula, scrappy, almost pesky hitting and lights-out pitching.

The one dealing for the A’s on this night? Former Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito, who evened his record at 8-8 after a horrendous 1-6 start that was rife with trade rumors.

The left-hander, who has won five in a row and took a no-hitter into the eighth inning of his previous start on Friday against Texas, went seven innings against the Angels. He gave up five hits, struck out six and walked two while throwing 113 pitches, 67 for strikes.

Oakland rookie closer Huston Street picked up his seventh save.

Angel starter Paul Byrd (9-6) was not too shabby either.

“You feel a little pressure out there; I think that’s good,” said Byrd, whose four-game winning streak came to an end as he gave up three runs and six hits in six innings.The right-hander struck out four and did not walk a batter.

The A’s scored their runs on a two-run home run by No. 9 hitter Mark Ellis in the fifth, his second homer of the season, and a solo shot by Mark Kotsay an inning later, his ninth.

“I shoulder the loss for this one,” Byrd said. “I kept our team in the game, but the bottom line is tonight I needed a shutout. I didn’t come through.”

Even if he had shut the A’s out, they’d still be playing, what with Zito and Co. throwing blanks at the Angels.

Angel relievers Brendan Donnelly and Esteban Yan combined to throw three scoreless innings, giving the bullpen a streak of 17 1/3 scoreless innings since the break.

But with the Angel offense so anemic the last two-plus games -- they have scored one run in their last 22 innings -- it has not mattered.

The Angels have not hit a home run in a season-high seven consecutive games, plus, they have not had a double-digit hit game in nine straight. They are hitting .207 (60-290) in that span.

It would have been worse were it not for the hitting of catcher Bengie Molina.

On his 31st birthday, Molina equaled a career high with four hits, going four for four with three singles and a double to raise his average to a team-high .368 for July.

Vladimir Guerrero, who had been hitless in his previous 11 at-bats, ended a three for 41 slump with a single to right in the eighth.

But those were about the only highlights for the Angels on the eve of a four-game series against the New York Yankees.

The lesson, as Paige might put it: Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear.