Santana turns it around

It should have been an occasion to celebrate for Ervin Santana, and yet the Angels pitcher who recorded his first road victory of the season and first extra-base hit of his career was in a dour mood late Saturday night.

“Are you guys happy now?” Santana said to reporters gathered around him in the clubhouse after the Angels’ 9-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, prompting one to retort, “Are you?”

“No, I’m not,” he said without elaborating.

The pitcher who has grown increasingly weary of discussing the gaping discrepancy between his home and road performances had finally experienced a reversal of fortune by pitching six strong innings to earn his first victory on the road since Sept. 24 at Oakland.

He gave up six hits and three runs, on two home runs, improving to 1-5 with an 8.50 earned-run average on the road. He is 4-1 with a 2.42 ERA at home.

“It’s not bothering me because the same thing I do at home, I do here too,” Santana said when asked if the questions about his woes away from Angel Stadium bothered him. “Nothing changes.”

Santana (5-6) was more receptive to a discussion of his two-run double that keyed a four-run fourth inning for the Angels, who will go for a sweep of the Cardinals today after producing 19 runs and 35 hits in the first two games of the series.

“You might be DHing when we get home,” reliever Scot Shields jokingly told Santana, who picked up the first extra-base hit by an Angels pitcher since Tim Belcher doubled against San Francisco on June 9, 1999.

Noting that he had played shortstop and center field before becoming a pitcher, Santana acknowledged that his double down the left-field line “makes me happy.”

There’s plenty of reasons to smile for the Angels (40-23), who are off to the best 63-game start in franchise history and became the first major league team this season to reach 40 victories. They have won nine of 11 games and have won all five games against National League opponents, becoming the only undefeated team in interleague play.

“It’s not something we can’t produce on a consistent basis,” said left fielder Garret Anderson, who hit a two-run homer before leaving in the fifth inning when he experienced tightness in his right hip flexor. “We’re hitting line drives and hard ground balls and finding some holes and taking the extra base. It’s going to apply pressure to the other team.”

Chone Figgins had four singles to extend his season-high hitting streak to nine games. He is hitting .525 during the streak, raising his average from .133 to .254, and he has become more productive on the bases, stealing 10 in his last nine games.

“Figgy’s as consistent as we’ve ever seen him,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “I don’t think there’s a guy that’s made as big a turnaround in the last 50 at-bats as Figgy has.”

Figgins, who got off to a slow start after sitting out most of April because of two broken fingers, said he had not made any changes in his hitting approach other than incorporating an undisclosed tip from teammate Nathan Haynes.

Santana also insisted that he was essentially the same pitcher at home and on the road, pointing out that he had won games at Oakland andYankee Stadium in New York.

“It’s nothing different,” he said. “But you guys don’t remember that. You guys only remember the bad things.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com