Angels Sweep the Orioles, 8-4

It’s a peculiar pickle the Angels are in. Does it almost seem as if every time Oakland wins, the Angels must win to keep pace in the American League West race, and every time the A’s lose, the Angels must win to gain ground?

“Yeah,” second baseman Adam Kennedy said, his matter-of-fact tone belying the difficulty of the task.

They’re basically trying to chase down a cheetah -- that’s how fast the A’s built a sizable lead in the division -- but the Angels showed they might be game, finding their legs during a three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, which they capped with an 8-4 victory Wednesday in Angel Stadium, running their winning streak to five.

The Angels didn’t get any help from above; Oakland rallied for six runs in the sixth inning for a 9-6 victory over Texas, maintaining its 5 1/2 -game lead over the Angels with 22 games remaining, seven of those against the Angels.

But five days ago, the Angels were 8 1/2 games back, so they feel a lot better about themselves entering a weekend series against Toronto. They were also four games behind the A’s on Sept. 4, 2004 before winning the division.

“We’re not going to go down without a fight ... but we know we can’t do it alone,” said reliever Brendan Donnelly, who retired the two batters he faced in the eighth inning. “We have to play error-free, good fundamental baseball all the way around, and some teams are going to have to beat Oakland for us to get to where we want to be. Right now, we’re getting good pitching and playing better defense. If we get any offense at all, we feel really good about winning that game.”

The Angels got plenty of offense Wednesday, including contributions from some recently untapped sources, banging out 15 hits.

Chone Figgins, dropped from the leadoff spot to ninth because of his four-for-42 skid, broke a 4-4 tie with a run-scoring double in the sixth and doubled and scored on Maicer Izturis’ triple in the eighth.

Catcher Mike Napoli, who hit .106 in his previous 34 games and struck out in his first two at-bats Wednesday, lined a leadoff double to the gap in left-center field before Figgins’ double in the sixth.

In addition to his RBI triple, Izturis, who replaced Figgins in the leadoff spot, singled and scored in the third and fifth innings. Orlando Cabrera, moved from the third to second spot, put on a situational-hitting clinic, with a hit-and-run single in the third, a hit-and-run double in the fifth and a sacrifice fly in the eighth.

Howie Kendrick had a solo home run and RBI single and Reggie Willits, filling in for the injured Juan Rivera, added a two-out RBI single, which followed Kennedy’s double, for a key insurance run in the seventh. Right-hander Ervin Santana threw seven bend-but-don’t-break innings, giving up four runs and seven hits, including three solo home runs -- two by Brian Roberts -- to improve to 14-7.

And J.C. Romero, Donnelly and Hector Carrasco combined for the final six outs on an afternoon closer Francisco Rodriguez, who had pitched in four straight games, was not available, and Manager Mike Scioscia wanted to avoid using heavily worked setup man Scot Shields.

“This was a nice little series for us,” Kennedy said. “Putting together streaks like this is necessary, because it lets us know it’s in us. Our confidence level is rising. If we keep playing well, we’ll have a shot in the end.”

They’re still a longshot. The A’s slipped this week, but they’ve won 24 of their last 32 games, they’ve overcome even more injuries than the Angels and again showed their resiliency with Wednesday’s come-from-behind win.

“They know we have seven games left against them, so that doesn’t allow them to get too comfortable,” Kennedy said. “But they’re too professional of a team to get too complacent.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com