Lackey Changes Story

The Angels didn’t exactly bust out of their offensive funk Wednesday night -- their bats made far less noise than the thousands of Vladimir Guerrero clackers given to fans in Angel Stadium -- but the way John Lackey was pitching, a bundle of runs was not necessary.

Relying as much on his changeup as his fastball, Lackey blanked Oakland on three hits in seven innings, closer Francisco Rodriguez rebounded from Tuesday’s loss to record the final three outs, and the Angels pushed across two runs in the fourth inning for a 2-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

The Angels managed only six hits and were retired in order in five of eight innings by A’s right-hander Joe Blanton, but Lackey’s superb effort and clutch hits by Darin Erstad and Maicer Izturis were enough to end the Angels’ five-game losing streak and the A’s seven-game win streak.

The Angels, 22-26 since July 7, moved to within one game of Oakland in the American League West.

“We needed this win to get going in the right direction and to show [the A’s] we’re going to hang around here,” said Lackey (11-5).

The Angels survived some tense moments for their first win since Aug. 24. Scott Hatteberg’s run-scoring single against Angel setup man Scot Shields pulled the A’s to within 2-1 in the eighth, and Oakland loaded the bases with two out when Shields, his command wavering, hit Bobby Kielty with a pitch.

Shields fell behind Nick Swisher with two balls, and Swisher got a good hack at the next pitch, sending a long fly ball to left field. Garret Anderson made the catch at the warning track to end the inning.

Mark Ellis singled off Rodriguez with two out in the ninth, and Eric Chavez drove an 0-and-2 slider to warning track in center, where Chone Figgins made the game-ending catch, a sellout crowd exhaled, and Rodriguez banked his 31st save.

“Our confidence is still high,” Rodriguez said. “We have a great rotation and bullpen. We’ve just got to turn the page. It’s September. We’ve got to come hard and finish strong.”

To that end, Manager Mike Scioscia canceled batting practice Wednesday so he could give his struggling hitters, who produced five runs and 18 hits in three previous games, a chance to escape the daily grind and conduct a hitters-only meeting that lasted about 20 minutes.

“It was nothing out of the ordinary, no voices were raised,” shortstop Orlando Cabrera said. “It was just a reminder to keep our focus and composure. There’s a long way to go, a lot of games left. We’re going to go through ups and downs. We can’t be hot all year -- not that we’ve been hot all year. We just have to deal with it.”

Scioscia said some players are “trying too hard,” and some “aren’t making the adjustments,” but after holding several individual meetings with players over the last week, he tried to focus on the team Wednesday.

“There are individual things guys need to do,” Scioscia said, “but as a group, we need to square balls up, drive the ball up the middle, get back to basics.”

Perhaps Guerrero took the discussion to heart. Guerrero entered Wednesday in an 11-for-50 (.220) slump, a 14-game stretch in which he drove in one run, and he seemed too eager at the plate, swinging at first pitches well out of the strike zone.

But Guerrero hit a broken-bat single to center in the first and opened the fourth inning by stroking a ground-ball single up the middle off Blanton. On a hit-and-run play, Erstad, who struck out with one out and the bases loaded in the first inning, belted a double to right-center, scoring Guerrero for a 1-0 lead.

Erstad took third on Bengie Molina’s fly to right and scored on Izturis’ two-out bloop single to center for a 2-0 margin.

Lackey needed some defensive help to get out of a third-inning jam when, with two on and two out, second baseman Adam Kennedy ranged into shallow right to make a sliding grab of Dan Johnson’s grounder and, from a sitting position, throw to first.

The A’s loaded the bases in the sixth when Ellis was hit by a pitch, Johnson walked with one out and Hatteberg reached on a two-out infield single.

Up stepped Kielty, whose 11th-inning home run gave the A’s a 2-1 victory Tuesday night. Lackey got ahead, 1-and-2, and Molina blocked two breaking balls in the dirt. With the count full, Lackey retired Kielty on a routine grounder to second to end the inning.

“I’m more of a pitcher now,” said Lackey, who has worked into the sixth inning in 23 consecutive starts. “Early in my career, I had two pitches, a fastball and curve, and I came at you hard all night long. Now I can change speeds. It makes it easier when I don’t have my best stuff. I have some options.”