Angels point to bad breaks

There seemed to be a feeling in the Angels’ clubhouse after Saturday’s game that Chicago’s 6-3 victory in Angel Stadium had as much to do with the White Sox’s good fortune as their timely hitting.

“Those were some well-placed hits,” right-hander John Lackey said after giving up four runs and eight hits in eight innings to fall to 4-3. “Besides their first run, they had a well-placed fly ball, a ground ball and a blooper.”

Said Manager Mike Scioscia, addressing Lackey’s rough start, when he gave up three runs and four hits in the first two innings: “Early on, a couple of balls found some seams.”

Yeah, the ones between the padding on the outfield wall. Former Angel Darin Erstad smoked Lackey’s first pitch up the middle for a single, and Paul Konerko had a run-scoring single later in the inning.

Tadahito Iguchi led off the second inning with a double over the head of center fielder Gary Matthews Jr., and scored on Alex Cintron’s double to the gap in right-center field, both shots reaching the wall. Cintron scored on Erstad’s single to left-center field for a 3-0 lead.

If anything, Lackey’s recollection of a lackluster afternoon in which the Angels uncharacteristically committed four errors might have been clouded by Chicago’s last run against him, which did indeed look like something off the rack of a thrift store, yet proved decisive.

The Angels had rallied against right-hander Jon Garland to tie the score, 3-3. They scored twice in the fourth inning on Reggie Willits’ leadoff single, Orlando Cabrera’s run-scoring double and Vladimir Guerrero’s sacrifice fly, and once in the fifth on doubles by Shea Hillenbrand and Chone Figgins.

But with one out in the sixth inning, noted Angels nemesis A.J. Pierzynski hit an opposite-field ground ball that sneaked by Figgins at third base and rolled down the line in left field for a double.

Lackey struck out Iguchi for the second out, but Joe Crede, in a one-for-13 slump and batting .206 before the game, blooped a lawn dart of a single just beyond the reach of second baseman Erick Aybar in shallow right field, driving in Pierzynski for a 4-3 lead.

The White Sox scored two runs, one earned, against Darren Oliver in the ninth inning to pull away.

“They did a better job of placing the ball today,” Lackey said. “It happens. It’s part of the game. I’m just disappointed I lost a game when I felt so good.”

The rest of the Angels didn’t look so good. The fielding woes that plagued them last season resurfaced in the form of four errors, one more than they had committed in their previous 10 games combined.

Lackey’s errant pickoff throw allowed Cintron to take third in the second inning, Figgins booted Pablo Ozuna’s grounder in the fifth, no one covered second base on Erstad’s stolen base in the seventh -- Aybar was charged with an error -- and Oliver misplayed Erstad’s grounder in the ninth.

“It was one of those days defensively when we were out of sync,” Scioscia said.

The Angels also were haunted by an old friend. Erstad, who signed with the White Sox after an 11-year career with the Angels, the last four of which were marred by injuries, singled twice, walked, drove in two runs and stole a base. He was six for 12 in three games against the Angels the previous weekend.

“He’s really swung the bat well against us and he’s running well -- he’s doing a lot of the things we saw for a long time,” Scioscia said. “It’s good to see him healthy, but it’s not good to see him beating us.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com