Inside Job Lifts Angels

You could hear a storm brewing outside the Metrodome on Tuesday night, but it was the Angels who provided the thunder inside the dome, banging out a season-high 13 hits in an 8-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins, the longest of which was provided by a little leadoff man who is not exactly the Thor of the Angel offense.

Chone Figgins, known far more for his speed than power, tore into a Carlos Silva fastball in the fifth inning, driving it off the facing of the upper deck in right field for a two-run home run that put the Angels ahead, 5-1.

Figgins, who has two homers in three games, also singled and scored in the fourth inning and had a run-scoring single in the ninth to back the superb pitching of right-hander Kelvim Escobar, who threw a tarpaulin over the Twins’ offense, limiting Minnesota to two runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings and striking out 10 to improve to 2-1.

“The last thing on Figgins’ mind is a home run,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He has surprising power and has shown it. He can put a charge in a ball. But that’s the last thing we’re looking for.”

Figgins, whose job is to wreak havoc on the basepaths and score runs, seemed almost apologetic.

“My type of swing is to try to drive the ball,” said Figgins, who has 15 career homers. “Sometimes I may hit a line drive a little too high, and in that at-bat I did. Sometimes you catch a pitch right, and it goes over the fence.

“But I don’t even think I’ve hit a home run in batting practice here. That’s got to be the hardest ball I’ve ever hit here.”

The right-handed Silva always has been hard for the Angels to hit here -- he had been 4-0 against the Angels with a 2.86 earned-run average, and 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA against them in the Metrodome.

But the Angels pelted Silva with clutch hits, scoring six of their runs after two were out. Shortstop Orlando Cabrera had three hits and two runs batted in, and Adam Kennedy had two hits, two runs and an RBI, as the Angels erased the sour taste of their series in Baltimore, where they lost three of four games.

“That’s a good sign,” Figgins said of the clutch hits. “We’ve been having some good at-bats and not getting results.”

Figgins was involved in all three Angel rallies. He led off the fourth inning with a single and Cabrera followed with a run-scoring hit-and-run double into the right-field corner. Cabrera scored on Garret Anderson’s single for a 2-1 lead.

Casey Kotchman sparked the fifth-inning outburst with a one-out single that ended an 0-for-12 skid. He took second on Jeff Mathis’ groundout and scored on Kennedy’s double to left-center field. Figgins followed with his homer for a 5-1 lead.

The Twins threatened in the fifth when Lew Ford doubled, Juan Castro singled in a run and Shannon Stewart singled, giving Minnesota runners on first and second with no outs.

But Escobar struck out Luis Castillo looking at a split-fingered fastball and Joe Mauer looking at a fastball, and got Tony Batista to ground to short, preserving a 5-2 Angel lead.

“There were a couple of times Escobar got in trouble, and he really stepped up and made some of his best pitches of the night in the fifth inning,” Scioscia said. “He maintained his stuff, he had good command most of the night, and he was able to put hitters away when he had the opportunity.”

The Angels pulled away in the ninth on Mathis’ two-out run-scoring double and run-scoring singles by Figgins and Cabrera, turning a 5-2 game into an 8-2 rout and eliminating a save opportunity for closer Francisco Rodriguez, who looked a little disappointed.

Rodriguez was warming up in the ninth inning of a three-run game and was poised to replace Scot Shields, who threw two hitless innings for his first save, but when Mathis laced his run-scoring double down the left-field line, making it a four-run game, Rodriguez tossed a cup aside and took a seat on the bullpen bench.