Angels keep their game up in lights

Somebody should stock the Angel Stadium utility closet with more lightbulbs. They illuminate the halo on the Big A message board in the stadium parking lot after victories, and at this rate, the Angels will start burning out halogens quicker than they can replace them.

Kelvim Escobar turned in another lights-out performance, pitching a three-hitter Tuesday night, and the offense received glowing reviews in a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins, which gave the Angels a major league-high 38 victories, one more than the Boston Red Sox.

Leadoff batter Reggie Willits scored two runs, No. 2 batter Orlando Cabrera had two hits and a run batted in to improve his average to .332, best among American League shortstops, and No. 3 batter Vladimir Guerrero had an RBI single in the third, as the Angels pushed their win streak to five.

The bottom of the order also weighed in, as No. 6 batter Casey Kotchman hit his fourth home run in 10 days, and No. 9 hitter Chone Figgins continued his resurgence with two hits, a run and an RBI to raise his average from .133 six days ago to .221.

The Angels won for the ninth time in 11 games and the 15th time in 19 games. At 38-22, they’re off to the best 60-game start in franchise history. Their 24-8 record in Angel Stadium is the best start at home in club history.

“We’re playing consistent baseball, and we just happened to be playing at home right now,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “If you look at that one road trip [where the Angels went 1-7 against Cleveland, Boston and Oakland in early April], I don’t care where we were playing, we could have been playing in Salt Lake City, we weren’t going to win many games. We’re just playing good baseball.”

On all fronts.

It started Tuesday night with pitching. Escobar (7-3) did not allow a hit for four innings before Torii Hunter led off the fifth with a home run. The Twins went on to put runners on second and third with two outs in that inning, but Escobar got Luis Castillo on a comebacker to end the threat and allowed one hit the rest of the way.

The right-hander, who has overcome elbow, knee and shoulder injuries in recent years, wasn’t quite as dominating as he was on May 10, when he threw a seven-hit shutout against Cleveland, striking out nine and walking one. But he was in such control that no reliever was warming up as he came out for the ninth.

“That gives you a lot of confidence,” Escobar said. “You definitely want to finish it up. That doesn’t happen too often, but it felt good.”

Escobar struck out four and walked three in pitching the lowest-hit game of his career and needed only 107 pitches, 77 of which were strikes, to finish the 2-hour 14-minute game. He retired the last 10 batters in a row.

“There aren’t many pitchers who can match his velocity with the way he can spin the ball and change speeds,” Scioscia said. “With his command, he was terrific.”

The Angels backed Escobar with two outstanding plays -- Kotchman diving toward the line at first to rob Justin Morneau of a hit and save a run in the first inning, and Figgins diving to stop Castillo’s grounder to third in the eighth.

They also scored four of their five runs on two-out hits, including Cabrera’s single in the fifth, Kotchman’s homer in the sixth and Figgins’ single in the sixth.

“We’ve been able to pressure clubs for the last few weeks,” Scioscia said. “We got one long ball from Casey, and outside of that, we did a good job of situational hitting and got some real big two-out hits, which are difference-makers. We’re on base more and running the bases aggressively. Even though we’re not driving the ball off the charts, we’re scoring runs.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com