In a flash, Shields sparks Angels

That was some double threat the Texas Rangers and the skies around Rangers Ballpark in Arlington posed in the seventh inning Saturday.

Storm clouds, thunder and streak lightning hovered above, prompting stadium officials to evacuate the upper deck, and the Rangers, trailing by two runs, had the bases loaded and one out down below, with two of baseball’s top hitters coming up.

“It was like a scene from ‘The Natural,’ ” said Scot Shields, the Angels reliever who stood on the mound, in the middle of it all. “I’m just glad it didn’t end that way.”

Shields eliminated any chance for a Roy Hobbs reference, getting Michael Young to line out to second and striking out the dangerous Mark Teixeira to help preserve the Angels’ 6-3 victory over Texas, increase their winning streak to four and extend Bartolo Colon’s mastery against the Rangers.

Colon, continuing his comeback from a rotator-cuff tear, gave up three runs and five hits in six innings, striking out six and walking two, to improve to 4-0 this season and 12-0 in his last 12 starts against the Rangers, a team he hasn’t lost to since Aug. 16, 2003.

Only one other active pitcher has won 12 consecutive starts against an opponent, Pedro Martinez against the Seattle Mariners from 1998 to 2004.

“Coming up with Cleveland, they had my number -- I always had a hard time with them,” Colon, who has a 17-5 career record and 3.44 earned-run average against the Rangers, said through an interpreter. “There’s no way to explain what’s going on now other than I’ve been able to make pitches at crucial times.”

Some early run support and late relief help never hurt. The Angels scored twice in the first Saturday and three times in the second off Kameron Loe, with Reggie Willits, the new leadoff sparkplug, hitting singles and scoring during both rallies.

Loe blanked the Angels on two hits from the third through seventh innings, and the Rangers crept back against Colon on Teixeira’s two-run homer in the fourth and Sammy Sosa’s run-scoring single in the sixth.

Angels reliever Dustin Moseley gave up singles to Nelson Cruz and Gerald Laird to open the seventh, and both advanced on Ian Kinsler’s sacrifice bunt. Shields, with lightning flashing above, came on and walked Kenny Lofton to load the bases, just as fans in the upper deck were ordered to seek cover.

“I was sitting on the bench and got down on the floor just in case,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “I put a wood bat in my back pocket, because wood is supposed to ground you.”

Soon, the Angels would return to the safety of their dugout. Second baseman Erick Aybar scooted quickly to his left to snag Young’s liner, and Shields struck out Teixeira on a nasty, 1-and-2 curve to snuff out the rally.

“This is definitely no knock on Lofton, but I didn’t want to walk him to bring up two of the best hitters in the game,” Shields said. “I put myself in a spot I didn’t want to be in. But Young hit the ball right at Aybar, and I got a swing and a miss by Teixeira on a pitch I didn’t put in the best spot. I tried to bounce it, and I got it up a little.”

The Angels added an insurance run in the eighth when Casey Kotchman, who knocked in a run in the first, singled, took third on Young’s throwing error and scored on third baseman Hank Blalock’s throwing error.

Shields threw a scoreless eighth and Francisco Rodriguez added a scoreless ninth for his 12th save as the Angels improved to 22-8 in their last 30 games against Texas and 37-15 in the teams’ last 52 meetings.

“We’ve had to work for every hit, every out, every win against these guys,” Scioscia said. “There’s no dominance there. The record could easily be the other way around.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com