Coming Up Short in Long-Ball Game

Typical baseball. Spend the afternoon dwelling on the Angels’ inability to hit home runs, and what do they do Friday night? They break a 50-inning streak without a home run by hitting not one, two, or three, but four homers in a 6-5 loss to the Orioles, who hit four of their own.

After the Angels fielded numerous pregame questions about their lack of power, Garret Anderson ended the five-game drought when he followed Orlando Cabrera’s one-out single in the first inning with a two-run homer to right-center field against Oriole starter Rodrigo Lopez.

Juan Rivera followed with a solo shot to left for a 3-0 lead, and with two out in the second, Adam Kennedy lofted a solo home run over the tall wall in right for a 4-0 Angel lead.

But while the Angels lived by the home run, the Orioles tied by it, using three long balls of their own (solo shots by Jay Gibbons and David Newhan and Nick Markakis’ two-run shot) to pull even, 4-4.

Jeff Mathis hit the Angels’ fourth homer, a solo shot in the ninth that tied the score, 5-5, but between long balls, the Angels managed only three baserunners from the third through eighth innings.

“We hit some home runs,” Manager Mike Scioscia said, “but we didn’t pressure them as much as we would have liked after the second. Lopez pitched a heck of a game after the first two innings.”

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Oriole catcher Ramon Hernandez had no sooner completed his follow-through on the swing that resulted in his walk-off home run against reliever Scot Shields on Friday night when he flipped his bat into the air, as if there were no doubt the ball was gone.

A bold move, considering the home run landed only two rows above the short wall in left field in Camden Yards, hardly a prodigious blast.

“We watched it on replay, and we said it went into the second row,” Baltimore Manager Sam Perlozzo said with a chuckle. “That wasn’t the reaction we were expecting for a ball that went two rows deep.”

Opponents often take offense to such gestures, and sometimes they’ll look for retribution in the form of a brushback pitch the next day. But Shields was not offended.

“You hit a big game-winning home run, hey, you beat me, you can do what you want,” Shields said. “Especially on a walk-off.”

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Center fielder Darin Erstad’s wife, Jessica, gave birth to the couple’s first child, a 7-pound, 12-ounce girl named Jordan Elizabeth, Friday morning. Erstad remained in Southern California for the birth Friday and was scheduled to fly to Baltimore today. ... Right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, pulled from Wednesday’s game because of flu-like symptoms in the fifth inning, felt fine Friday and played the whole game, going hitless in four at-bats. ... Oriole reliever Tim Byrdak got the win Friday night after throwing only one pitch, which resulted in Kennedy’s groundout to end the top of the ninth.