Memorable night for Santana

DETROIT -- A little amnesia went a long way for Ervin Santana, who created his first good memory of Comerica Park with a quality start against one of baseball’s most prolific lineups Friday night.

Drawing comparisons to a Spanish artist of some acclaim, Santana limited a smoking-hot Detroit Tigers offense to three runs and six hits in 6 1/3 innings of the Angels’ 4-3 victory, the latest in an impressive 2008 body of work for the 25-year-old right-hander.

“He’s painting,” center fielder Torii Hunter said. “When you can paint 95-, 96-, 97-mph on the corners and you have a nasty slider . . . I don’t care how good a hitter you are, you can’t hit 97 . . . Picasso . . . no chance.”

It wasn’t quite the masterpiece Santana produced last Saturday, when he gave up one run and three hits in eight innings, striking out eight, in a 4-1 victory over Seattle, but considering the degree of difficulty and the venue, it was just as impressive.

Santana made two previous starts in Comerica, giving up five runs in four innings of a 9-0 loss on Sept. 1, 2006, and eight runs in 3 2/3 innings of a 12-0 loss on May 24, 2007.

Not that Santana, who is 4-0 with a 2.97 earned-run average in five starts this season, was haunted by those disasters.

“I don’t know what happened in the past,” Santana said. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Nor was he fazed by a lineup that shook off its early season struggles to hit .304 with 86 runs, 19 homers and 28 doubles in its previous 11 games.

“It’s a tough lineup, but I didn’t think about it,” said Santana, who threw a season-high 111 pitches despite cracking a nail on his middle finger. “I’m tough, too. I don’t have to give credit to nobody.”

Such bravado. No wonder Santana, when asked afterward how high his confidence is, said, “300%.”

But that’s the mind-set you need against a lineup that features the likes of Placido Polanco, Gary Sheffield, Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera.

“You have to make pitches and attack them,” said closer Francisco Rodriguez, who earned his 10th save of the season and third in three days with a perfect ninth. “You want to put them away as quick as you can.”

Santana retired the first nine batters, and the Angels tagged left-hander Nate Robertson for four runs in the fourth on Vladimir Guerrero’s two-run home run and Casey Kotchman’s two-run single. Chone Figgins sparked the rally with a leadoff double.

Santana gave up a leadoff homer to Curtis Granderson in the bottom of the fourth, and Polanco doubled and later scored on Ordonez’s groundout to make it 4-2. The Tigers loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth, but Santana minimized damage.

Ordonez, who began the game with a .329 average, 21 homers and 56 runs batted in against the Angels, hit a first-pitch popup to first, Cabrera knocked in a run with a fielder’s choice grounder, and Jacque Jones grounded out.

“That was big,” Santana said. “I just forgot that anyone was on base and tried to make my pitches.”

With two on and one out in the seventh, left-hander Darren Oliver replaced Santana and got Granderson to fly to center.

Justin Speier came on and walked Polanco to load the bases, and Sheffield ripped a fly to deep left-center, where Hunter made the catch on the warning track after a long run.

“As soon as the ball was hit, we all put our heads down,” said Rodriguez, who watched from the bullpen in left-center field. “We thought it was gone.”

Said Hunter: “The wind held it up.”

The Angels caught another break in the eighth when, with two on and two out, Ivan Rodriguez smashed a liner right to Kotchman at first base, ending the inning.

Rodriguez’s clean ninth put the finishing touches on the Angels’ third straight win -- the previous two were at Boston -- and another well-pitched game. The Angels held Detroit to six hits, and Ordonez went 0 for 4.

“Every guy in their lineup is capable of getting on base, hitting the ball to the gap,” catcher Jeff Mathis said. “It’s a battle, for sure.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com