‘Pen regains edge; Angels retain theirs

Jered Weaver did all he could, throwing six shutout innings but exhausting his pitch count in the process, so it was time to turn the game over to the Angels’ bullpen relay team of Justin Speier, Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez, which hadn’t exactly resembled Leroy Burrell-to-Dennis Mitchell-to-Carl Lewis in recent weeks.

This time, though, no one dropped the baton.

For the first time since an Aug. 6 win over Boston, Speier, Shields and Rodriguez combined for three scoreless innings to preserve a 3-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays and ace Roy Halladay on Friday night, enabling the Angels to maintain their one-game lead over Seattle in the American League West.

“Any time you get through six innings with a lead, it’s pretty much safe with Speier, Shields and Frankie coming in,” Weaver said, tactfully overlooking the bullpen’s recent struggles. “They’ve been a good combination the whole year. To have those guys behind you, you’re confident it’s going to be a victory.”

Weaver, who failed to hold a five-run fifth-inning lead in Boston last Saturday, allowed five hits, struck out five and walked one to improve to 9-6 but needed 104 pitches to get through six innings.

No Blue Jays runner advanced to third base against him, and the only one who got close, John McDonald, was cut down by left fielder Garret Anderson, whose perfect one-hop throw prevented McDonald from going from first to third on Reed Johnson’s fifth-inning single.

Weaver then handed the ball to Speier, who’d given up six runs in 2 1/3 innings in his previous three games, but retired the side in order on 14 pitches in the seventh.

Speier handed the ball to Shields, who had a 13.50 earned-run average in nine previous August appearances and had allowed six runs in two-thirds of an inning in his last three games.

Pinch-hitter Matt Stairs smacked Shields’ first pitch into the gap in right-center for a double, and you could hear the crowd of 41,131 muttering, “Here we go again.”

But Shields rebounded, striking out Johnson on three pitches and Lyle Overbay looking at a 91-mph fastball. The right-hander fell behind Alex Rios, but the Toronto right fielder grounded out to shortstop on a 3-1 pitch.

Rodriguez walked two in the ninth and threw a wild pitch, but he struck out Gregg Zaun on a full-count changeup to end the game for his 32nd save.

The one who felt most relieved afterward was Shields.

“It felt good to walk off the mound under my own power,” said the usually dominant setup man, who was pulled from his previous three outings before completing an inning. “It was definitely a relief, after the way Jered and Justin pitched, to keep the shutout going.”

Shields was called into Manager Mike Scioscia’s office for a closed-door meeting Thursday and threw two bullpen sessions in recent days trying to iron out some mechanical difficulties.

With a 3-0 lead, he was determined to throw a first-pitch strike to Stairs “because I’ve been getting behind everyone,” he said. “I didn’t care if it was right down the middle. He got a good piece of wood on it, but after that . . . I was able to locate my stuff, throw my breaking ball for strikes and locate my fastball better.”

Is Shields over his slump?

“I hope so, yeah,” he said. “I think I’ve overcome whatever I’ve endured over the last three weeks. This was definitely a step in the right direction.”

Halladay fell to 14-6 despite throwing his major league-leading sixth complete game of the season. The Angels managed 12 hits off the right-hander, four of them in the first inning, when they scored on run-scoring singles by Vladimir Guerrero and Maicer Izturis.

The Angels managed just two hits over the next five innings, but they broke through again in the seventh when Howie Kendrick led off with an infield single and eventually scored on Orlando Cabrera’s RBI single over second baseman Aaron Hill’s head for a 3-0 lead.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com