Angels Work Swing Shift

Given a team-wide day off from batting practice, Vladimir Guerrero was lounging in the Angel clubhouse on a steamy Thursday afternoon when pitching coach Bud Black began barking at his staff.

“Pitchers’ meeting, let’s go,” Black yelled, before eyeing Guerrero. “Vladi, let’s go. Pitchers’ meeting.”

Guerrero simply smiled at Black’s attempt at comedy.

“I’ll be there,” he said through a thick grin.

And while he was joking too, maybe Guerrero did sneak over to the New York Yankee pitchers’ meeting. Because he seemed to know exactly what Tom Gordon was going to throw him in the seventh inning.

Guerrero sat on a 1-and-0 Gordon offering and crushed the cutter, sending a majestic shot over the wall in dead center field for a game-turning grand slam.

Pausing for a moment at home plate to admire the moment, Guerrero then pumped his fist as he approached first base. After all, his second career regular-season grand slam ended a four-for-45 slump and had given the Angels a 6-5 lead that would turn into a white-knuckle 6-5 victory in the first of a four-game series.

“I always believe the hits are going to fall,” said Guerrero, who has 17 homers this season. “I think every day we play here it feels like a playoff. But yeah, it felt like it a little more [against the Yankees].”

Most of a regular-season record crowd announced at 44,109 at Angel Stadium chanted “MVP, MVP, MVP” at Guerrero, and the reigning American League most valuable player obliged with a curtain call, doffing his helmet to the fans.

“We certainly know both [Guerrero] and Garret [Anderson] are too good hitters to slump forever,” said Yankee Manager Joe Torre. “They’re like sleeping dogs; somebody’s going to stir them up and there it was, bases loaded.”

Since Torre became manager of the Yankees in 1996, the first season in New York’s run of four World Series titles in five years, the Angels are 46-45 against them. The Angels are the only team in baseball with a winning record against the Yankees in that time.

The crowd was on its feet at the end as well, though in nervous anticipation, as closer Francisco Rodriguez endured a leadoff double off the left-center-field wall by Alex Rodriguez to escape with his 22nd save and preserve a win that kept the Angels 6 1/2 games ahead of Oakland in the AL West.

A-Rod seemed to take exception to K-Rod’s jubilant display after Jorge Posada grounded out to second base to end the game; the Yankee third baseman stared at the Angel closer as he walked back to the dugout.

“I don’t know if he said something to me,” Francisco Rodriguez said. “I didn’t say anything. I’m not out there to show off, to show anybody up. That’s the way that I pitch. That’s the way I celebrate my saves. I’m not going to change that for anybody.”

Angel starter Bartolo Colon (12-6) got the win, despite leaving on the wrong end of a 5-2 score. The right-hander gave up five runs and eight hits in seven innings. He struck out three and did not walk a batter, though he gave up two home runs to Jason Giambi and one each to Hideki Matsui and Alex Rodriguez, who has taken him deep four times in the last two games they’ve met.

The Angels (57-39) had been in a massive power slump, hitting just one home run in their previous seven games, and they were handcuffed most of the night by Yankee starter Randy Johnson.

But Johnson, who benefited when a fan in a Yankee cap reached into the field to touch a Bengie Molina double and stop the runners at second and third in the sixth inning (the fan was removed), tweaked his troublesome back later in the inning when his spike caught on the mound.

Johnson was gone to begin the seventh, and that was just fine with the Angels. Scott Proctor walked pinch-hitter Jeff DaVanon to begin the inning and was replaced by lefty Buddy Groom, who gave up consecutive singles to Maicer Izturis and Chone Figgins to load the bases.

Groom struck out Darin Erstad and gave way to Gordon, who would face Guerrero.

“The situation where it was, bases loaded, and he drives the ball, that’s big,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s a game-breaking type of player and he broke it open tonight.”

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Halo slams

Angel grand slams in 2005:

*--* JUAN RIVERA May 20 Ninth inning, against Yhency Brazoban, in 9-0 victory at the Dodgers. GARRET ANDERSON June 28 11th inning, against Brian Shouse, in 5-1 victory at Texas. VLADIMIR GUERRERO July 21 Seventh inning, against Tom Gordon, in 6-5 victory vs. New York Yankees.

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