Angels dig their way out of hole in St. Louis

An unfamiliar thing happened on the way to what looked like a sure defeat for the Angels on Friday night.

The Angels figured out how to overcome a sizable deficit, scoring nine unanswered runs en route to a 10-6 interleague victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

Chone Figgins, Garrett Anderson and Howie Kendrick had three hits apiece to pace a 17-hit attack and bail out starter Bartolo Colon, who had dropped his teammates into a 4-0 hole after giving up three homers during a season-low four innings.

It was the largest deficit the Angels have overcome this season. They had overcome a three-run deficit April 27 during an eventual 7-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox, but the biggest deficit they had overcome in a victory was all of two runs on multiple occasions.

“When you’re down four early and you come back and win, it’s a great effort,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “I thought offensively we pressured them about as much as we could.”

The Angels applied most of the pressure during a six-run seventh inning in which they sent 10 men to the plate and strung together six consecutive hits, one short of the club record. Casey Kotchman and Mike Napoli delivered the big blows, Kotchman driving in two runs with a bloop single to left field and Napoli knocking in two more with a double down the left-field line.

Vladimir Guerrero, who had a two-run single during the Angels’ three-run fifth inning, got the seventh off to a promising start when he singled to left field and went to third base on Gary Matthews Jr.’s ground-rule double. Kotchman followed with his single that drove in both runners to give the Angels a 5-4 lead, Matthews scoring with a slide in which he swiped the plate with his hand to avert the tag of catcher Kelly Stinnett.

Kotchman moved into scoring position on the throw home and scored on Anderson’s single through the right side of the infield. Kendrick then doubled to right-center field and Napoli followed with his two-run double for the sixth consecutive hit of the inning.

“That’s what we’re all about, going first to third, running the bases hard, being aggressive and putting the pressure on them,” Napoli said.

Cardinals fans showered reliever Ryan Franklin with mock applause when he retired pinch-hitter Shea Hillenbrand on a grounder for the inning’s first out.

Colon, pitching for the first time since May 28 after missing his last start because of triceps tendinitis, gave up seven hits and four runs but displayed some zip on a fastball that topped out at around 93 mph.

“I felt good today,” Colon, who had four strikeouts, said through an interpreter. “I didn’t feel anything in my arm. I was pain free and loosey-goosey.”

Colon got into trouble after repeatedly falling behind hitters and grooving fastballs. Chris Duncan and Stinnett homered on 3-and-1 pitches, and Albert Pujols homered on a 1-and-0 count.

“Being a fastball pitcher, when you get behind the hitters you’re going to get hit,” said Colon, who recorded his 1,500th strikeout, in the third inning.

Nonetheless, the Angels seemed encouraged that Colon had put his injury woes behind him.

“It looked like to me the ball was coming out of his hand a little bit better tonight than it was last time,” Napoli said. “He’s just got to keep going.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com