Angels Solve Ishii in Time to Win

For five innings Friday night at steamy Shea Stadium, Kazuhisa Ishii looked like Sandy Koufax.

Then, in the sixth inning, the left-hander suddenly resembled, well, Kazuhisa Ishii.

The Angels pounded the New York Met starter in the inning, much the same as they did in his three-year career with the Dodgers, and rode their hot bats to a 12-2 victory before an announced crowd of 31,131.

What made the win all the sweeter for the Angels: the return of right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, the reigning American League most valuable player.

Guerrero was activated from the disabled list before the game and went three for five with three singles and three runs scored, showing no signs of lingering injury from the partially dislocated left shoulder he suffered in a head-first slide into home plate on May 20.

“Thanks to God I didn’t feel anything, no pain,” Guerrero said. “There was no pain whatsoever.

“It felt pretty good and I saw the ball well. I’ll probably let loose more when I see more pitches.”

In batting practice, Guerrero let loose enough to launch a shot out of the stadium on one swing and hit a stationary camera about 50 feet above the wall in center field on another.

No wonder Angel starter Bartolo Colon (8-3) arrived at the park looking for a lineup card with his Dominican countryman’s name on it. He said he finally found one in the trainer’s room.

“Not only did I smile when I saw that name, but I know it made the opposing pitcher think about it too, seeing that guy in the middle of the lineup,” said Colon, who gave up two runs and seven hits in six innings. He struck out three and did not walk a batter.

Colon also had a run-scoring single after looking foolish while striking out swinging in his previous two at-bats, his helmet flying off on one swing.

Ishii (1-5) made the Angels look silly through five innings, when he struck out eight and did not allow a runner past first base.

“That may be the best five innings we’ve had pitched against us in a while,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

But in the bottom of the fifth, Ishii, who had reached base on a fielder’s choice, was nearly caught off second base on a flyout to left fielder Garret Anderson and had to scramble back to the bag and slide.

The move on the basepaths seemed to throw off Ishii’s mechanics on the mound.

Ishii walked the first batter he faced on four pitches after his base-running adventure.

Darin Erstad homered to right, extending his hitting streak to 11 games, before Guerrero and Anderson singled.

Three batters later, and with two out, Steve Finley went deep, hitting a towering shot to right-center for his team-leading eighth home run.

It was the first time this season the Angels had gone deep twice in the same inning.

Ishii, who faced the Angels five times while with the Dodgers from 2002 to ’04 and went 1-4 with a 9.00 earned-run average, was done, but the Angels were not.

They added another sixth-inning run off reliever Mike DeJean when Orlando Cabrera doubled and was driven in by Colon.

“It was probably a combination of us seeing him a couple of times and him missing his spots,” Scioscia said of the change of fortunes against Ishii.

Joel Peralta threw two innings of scoreless relief and Esteban Yan closed it out for the Angels (35-25), who improved their lead in the AL West to 2 1/2 games over the Texas Rangers.

The Mets (31-30) played without catcher Mike Piazza, who had taken a foul tip off his left wrist two nights earlier.

The Angels added a run in the seventh and five more in the ninth, three of which came on a home run by Cabrera, who was surprised to be hitting eighth in the lineup.

Still, he wasn’t as mystified as Ishii and the Mets were after the starter’s strong start and feeble finish.

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Victory lane

Bartolo Colon got his eighth victory for the Angels on Friday, putting him in a tie for third place in the American League. The most victories by major league pitchers from 2002 to 2004:

* Bartolo Colon, Angels...53

* Derek Lowe, Dodgers...52

* Curt Schilling, Boston Red Sox...52

* Mark Mulder, St. Louis Cardinals...51

* Pedro Martinez, New York Mets...50

* Russ Ortiz, Arizona Diamondbacks...50