Angels Get Away Clean

It’s far too early in the season for must-win games, but after Wednesday night’s debacle, in which the Angels made two crucial errors, gave up five unearned runs and blew a five-run lead, they needed something to feel good about again.

Thursday’s 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins in the Metrodome should do.

The Angels got a step-up pitching performance from Kevin Gregg, who relieved struggling spot starter Hector Carrasco in the fourth inning and gave up one run and three hits in four innings, enabling the Angels to erase a 3-1 first-inning deficit.

They got a 1 1/3 -inning save from closer Francisco Rodriguez, who walked Lew Ford with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s 12-10 loss, forcing in the tying run, but rebounded Thursday by striking out Ford on a nasty slider with two on to end the eighth.

They pounded out 13 hits for the fourth time in five games, and the bottom of the order -- Edgardo Alfonzo, Jose Molina and Adam Kennedy -- combined to go six for 11 with three runs and four runs batted in, including Molina’s tiebreaking, two-out RBI double in the eighth.

And they played a crisp game, only their fifth errorless game in a season that resumes tonight in Oakland against the division-rival A’s.

“It was nice to get some flow back, it was a cleaner game,” said Kennedy, who went eight for 12 with five RBIs in the series, bumping his average to .388. “It’s a little easier to fly across the country after that one.”

Kennedy capped the two-run eighth with an RBI single, but it was Alfonzo, the seldom-used utility player who began the game with a .000 average, who sparked the two-out rally with a single to center.

Maicer Izturis ran for Alfonzo, and Molina, who entered with a .125 average and had an RBI single in the Angels’ three-run fourth, poked reliever Jesse Crain’s first pitch into the left-field corner for a double.

Third-base coach Dino Ebel waved Izturis home, and shortstop Nick Punto’s relay hit the sliding Izturis and scooted past catcher Joe Mauer. Izturis scored for a 5-4 lead, Molina took third, and Kennedy brought Molina home with a single to right.

Angel reliever Brendan Donnelly ran into trouble in the bottom of the eighth, when Michael Cuddyer singled and Ruben Sierra walked with two outs. Angel Manager Mike Scioscia summoned Rodriguez, who, after a summit meeting with Molina, whiffed Ford with his signature pitch.

“I wanted to make sure we were on the same page,” Molina said. “He asked me what I felt; I asked him what his best stuff was. We both agreed. You saw the result.”

Carrasco, starting for the injured Bartolo Colon, had mixed results. Scioscia thought the long reliever had “60 to 70” pitches in him; the right-hander used more than half his allotment in a 37-pitch first, giving up three runs.

Carrasco blanked the Twins in the second and third, but he was pulled after giving up a walk and a single in the fourth. Gregg, recalled from triple-A Salt Lake on Wednesday, earned the win and may have taken Carrasco’s rotation spot with his performance. Or the Angels could turn to Jered Weaver, who is 2-1 with a 2.50 earned-run average in three starts at Salt Lake.

“We don’t have to make that decision today,” Scioscia said. “Let’s let the dust settle on this one.”

When the dust cleared, Scioscia liked what he saw.

“Sometimes you can’t control the win-loss aspect as much as you can playing well, and that’s where the sense of urgency was after [Wednesday] night’s game, to play well,” Scioscia said. “If you do, the wins are going to come.”