Lackey works over the A’s several ways

OAKLAND -- John Lackey’s 95-mph fastballs might have seemed lukewarm compared with the heat with which the right-hander scorched the Oakland Athletics in the clubhouse after the Angels’ 4-3 victory Sunday afternoon at McAfee Coliseum.

Miffed that Oakland ace Dan Haren had thrown a pitch behind the back of slugger Vladimir Guerrero in the first inning -- prompting plate umpire C.B. Bucknor to warn both dugouts before the Angels had thrown a pitch -- Lackey unloaded on the Athletics, who he suggested were retaliating for catcher Kurt Suzuki’s being hit on the hand earlier in the series.

“If they think we hit a rookie catcher, and they’re going to throw at one of the best players on the planet, that doesn’t go unnoticed. That’s just dumb,” Lackey said. “It was a 1-2 count the kid got hit on. We’re here to win, we’re not here to mess around with stuff like that.”

The Angels salvaged a split of the four-game series after Casey Kotchman hit a two-out, tiebreaking single in the seventh inning against Kiko Calero and Lackey notched his 14th victory, tying him with Cleveland’s C.C. Sabathia, Boston’s Josh Beckett and the Chicago Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano for the major league lead.

The increasingly bitter rivalry between teams that have combined to win the last five American League West titles might have turned even testier after Lackey (14-6) said he was not surprised that the Athletics would resort to throwing at Guerrero, who had hit four homers and driven in seven runs in the first two games of the series.

“It doesn’t surprise me from them, no. That’s all I’m going to say,” Lackey said, before continuing. “I don’t see how a 1-2 pitch to a rookie catcher correlates to you throwing at an MVP, at a team that’s in a [pennant] race.”

Haren said that his 2-and-0 pitch to Guerrero merely slipped and that he did not intend to send a message. Guerrero walked on the next pitch and scored on Garret Anderson’s triple.

“I was kind of all over the place that inning, to be honest,” said the right-hander, who did not receive a decision in his bid to record his 14th victory. “I threw one ball in the grass and went 3-0 on a couple of hitters.”

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia didn’t seem convinced that it was an innocent pitch.

“Well, you’d like to give guys the benefit of the doubt,” Scioscia said, “but that one was behind him.”

The first-inning incident was only the latest in a series of ugly exchanges between the rivals dating to a benches-clearing brawl in May 2006 during which Lackey tussled with Jason Kendall. The catcher charged the mound after Lackey’s accusation that he had leaned over the plate in an effort to get hit.

Tempers flared again last August when Angels reliever Scot Shields struck Jay Payton, who had to be restrained, with a pitch on the right wrist. Just last month, Angels reliever Justin Speier sent shortstop Bobby Crosby to the disabled list after hitting him with a pitch that broke Crosby’s hand.

And on Friday, Shields plunked Suzuki on the hand during an eighth-inning implosion in which he surrendered five runs, prompting initial outrage from Athletics Manager Bob Geren before he cooled off and said he did not believe Shields had intentionally hit the catcher.

“There’s been some incidents,” Lackey said, “but most of those were warranted.”

The latest brouhaha pretty much ended after Haren’s errant pitch, though Lackey said the umpire’s warning unfairly punished him.

“If you think [Haren] threw at him, throw him out,” Lackey said. “That’s the rule. Or at least don’t give a warning [to the Angels] and let me get my shot.”

Lackey said the warning did not hinder his ability to pitch inside. He nearly escaped bases-loaded jams in the second and third innings, allowing only one run to score, when Marco Scutaro hit into a double play in the second.

Dan Johnson’s two-run home run in the sixth gave the Athletics a 3-2 lead, but the Angels rallied with two runs in the seventh on Anderson’s sacrifice fly and Kotchman’s single up the middle.

It wasn’t quite the July 2006 victory in which he retired 27 consecutive Oakland hitters after yielding Mark Kotsay’s leadoff double, but Lackey got in a parting shot of sorts by pitching 6 2/3 strong innings to improve to 11-3 with a 2.99 earned-run average in his career against the Athletics.

ben.bolch@latimes.com