Angel Win Includes a Big Signing Bonus

Francisco Rodriguez sneaked a peak into the Detroit dugout late Sunday afternoon.

The Angel closer, having already thrown three straight balls to Craig Monroe with runners at first and second and two out and the Angels clinging to a two-run lead, liked what he saw.

“They told him to go ahead and swing,” Rodriguez said.

Gambling that an anxious Monroe would swing, even with cleanup hitter Magglio Ordonez on deck, Rodriguez offered up a 94-mph fastball, low and away. Monroe obliged, taking a healthy hack but popping the pitch up behind home plate, where catcher Jose Molina caught it for the final out.

And just like that, the Angels had held on for a 5-3 victory over the Tigers in the finale of a four-game series at Angel Stadium.

“It was a good pitch; I was trying to locate it and get the ground ball or the pop-up,” said Rodriguez, who has 38 saves in 43 opportunities.

“I’m happy because I was able to bounce back from those first three pitches.”

Rodriguez’s team nearly had to use today -- their final off-day of the regular season -- to dissect their blowing a pair of four-run leads against the Tigers.

Instead, the Angels (84-65) can admire the way they maintained a two-game lead over the Oakland Athletics in the American League West with 13 games to play, including four in the East Bay next week.

If the Angels, who have won three straight, aren’t careful, they’ll again find themselves with 20 more wins than losses. That’s when bad things seem to happen to them.

Four times this season the Angels have been 20 games above .500 and each time they have immediately embarked on inexplicable losing streaks, going 1-6, 1-3, 0-5 and 0-4, respectively.

But after taking three of four from the Tigers (67-81), the Angels think they may have turned the corner.

“It was nice; we came through late [Saturday] night and then early today,” said Angel starter Paul Byrd, who limited the Tigers to one run and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings.

The right-handed Byrd (12-10) struck out six batters, walked one and benefited from a three-run Angel first inning.

“Paul had to work for every out,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “But it was good he had that early lead because he needed that leeway.”

The Angels swung freely against Detroit’s Matt Ginter (0-1), a right-hander who was making his first start of the season after 13 relief appearances.

In the first inning, Vladimir Guerrero’s one-out double to right scored Orlando Cabrera before Darin Erstad’s groundout to second brought home Garret Anderson. Guerrero scored on Juan Rivera’s two-out single to left.

In the third, Erstad singled home Cabrera to make it 4-0.

Detroit scored a run against Byrd in the fifth on a double-play groundout with the bases loaded.

But the Angels answered in the bottom of the inning when Cabrera scored on Rivera’s two-out single off Detroit reliever Sean Douglass.

After Kelvim Escobar pitched 1 1/3 innings of shutout relief that included three strikeouts, Scioscia brought in Scot Shields, who was making his team record-tying 72nd appearance, to start the ninth inning.

Shields’ aborted outing consisted of a leadoff walk to Marcus Thames, a single by Omar Infante, a strikeout of Vance Wilson, a wild pitch that allowed the runners to move to second and third and a two-run single up the middle by pinch-hitter Dmitri Young.

Fans heartily booed Shields off the field.

Enter Rodriguez, who gave up a flare single to Curtis Granderson -- who was five for five -- before striking out Brandon Inge. Up stepped Monroe.

“I’ve got to go for it,” Monroe said. “If it goes out, we’re happy. He’s throwing that filthy slider, it’s 3-and-0, I’ve got the green light. I liked that swing, I just missed it.”

The Angels, with a day of rest before the 13-games-in-13-days sprint to the finish, are only too happy he did.