Angels batters reward Weaver

There were hits and runs this time, just no suspense.

Jered Weaver surrendered a hit on his seventh pitch and the Angels scored twice in the second inning Friday night at Angel Stadium, erasing any chance of another bizarre outcome like the right-hander experienced last week against the Dodgers, when he pitched six no-hit innings but emerged on the wrong end of a shutout loss.

Weaver walked off the mound to a standing ovation in the eighth inning of the Angels’ 8-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, a satisfactory conclusion to his evening all but assured thanks to the continued awakening of a long-slumbering offense.

Howie Kendrick drove in three runs and Garret Anderson hit a two-run homer for the Angels, who have scored 20 runs in their last three games after combining for two runs over their previous four games. Torii Hunter also homered, giving the power-starved Angels five homers in their last three games.

“We’re doing some things better on the offensive side,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “The home runs, although we’re not built around them, we certainly need to drive the ball.”

Anderson’s second homer in two July games is one more than he hit in all of June, when he batted .188.

“I like to see results as much as anybody,” said Anderson, who went three for four and is hitting .625 this month. “The way it’s been going, the results haven’t been there for most of the year. But I still have half a season left to find some holes and contribute.”

Weaver (8-8) didn’t need the onslaught on a night in which he took a shutout into the eighth inning. Especially since all the fluky kinds of things that worked against Weaver six days earlier against the Dodgers, who scored their only run on two errors, a stolen base and a sacrifice fly, were going his way Friday.

After Hunter homered off A.J. Burnett (8-8) in the second, the Angels scored another run after an umpire ruled that second baseman Joe Inglett’s foot didn’t touch second base as he attempted to turn a double play. Instead of getting two outs on Gary Matthews Jr.’s grounder, the Blue Jays got none and the Angels had runners on first and second with one out. Kendrick then fisted a run-scoring double inside the first-base line, giving the Angels a 2-0 lead.

Things got even wackier in the sixth when Vladimir Guerrero doubled on a fly ball that probably could have been caught but nicked off right fielder Alex Rios’ glove. Guerrero advanced to third when Hunter’s grounder up the middle bounced off shortstop Marco Scutaro’s glove and then his leg for an error.

One out later, Matthews lined an RBI double down the left-field line to make it 3-0 and Kendrick followed with a two-run single that ricocheted off the mound and into center field.

Weaver said Matthews had approached him in the fourth inning, when the Angels still led only 2-0, and told him to hang in there because the team was going to score more runs. They did, breaking a stretch of 18 consecutive games against the Blue Jays in which the Angels had failed to score more than four runs.

“It’s fun to watch those guys go to work,” Weaver said. “This is a very good steppingstone for what we can do.”

It’s also the latest in a string of impressive outings for Weaver, who said his ability to keep his pitches down has helped him compile a 1.45 earned-run average over his last three starts.

He gave up six hits and two runs in 7 1/3 innings Friday, when the pressure of maintaining a no-hitter was gone only a few minutes into the game.

“I wasn’t really worried about that one today,” he said.

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ben.bolch@latimes.com