Jered Weaver hardly wavers in earning Angels victory
Jered Weaver stared down the hottest team in baseball, a lineup that features twin terrors Vladimir Guerrero and Josh Hamilton, and didn’t even blink Thursday night.
The Angels right-hander gave up two hits in seven scoreless innings, striking out six and walking two, to lead the Angels to a 2-1victory over Texas that trimmed the Rangers’ American League West lead to 3 1/2 games at the midway point of the season.
After a turbulent eighth, in which setup man Fernando Rodney needed 33 pitches to complete the inning, closer Brian Fuentes needed only seven pitches to retire the side in order in the ninth for his 15th save, as the Angels won two of three games in the series.
Four of five games between the teams this season have been decided by one run, and the teams play each other 14 more times.
“I think they’re going to be some good matchups, so fans, don’t miss them,” Angels center fielder Torii Hunter said. “I kind of like these games. This is what it’s all about. Good pitchers’ duels, clutch hitting. Every inning, I’m upbeat. I like playing those guys. They keep me pumped up.”
Hunter might not think that if he had to pitch to Texas. That was Weaver’s challenge, but he was up to the task Thursday night, locating his fastball all night and keeping the Rangers guessing with his curveballs and changeups.
“Those guys are like the Yankees out there,” said Weaver, who improved to 8-3 and lowered his earned-run average to 2.82. “They have power up and down the lineup. I wanted to keep them off balance as much as possible.”
Guerrero, the former Angels slugger, entered with a .339 average, 18 home runs and an AL-leading 68 runs batted in and torched the Angels for three homers and eight RBIs in the first two games of the series.
Hamilton carried a .343 average, 18 homers and 58 RBIs, as well as a 23-game hit streak, into the game and was coming off a sizzling June in which he hit .454 (49 for 108) with nine homers and 31 RBIs.
Guerrero popped out to second, walked and popped out to first in three plate appearances against Weaver. Hamilton struck out twice and grounded out to the mound in three at-bats against Weaver. He walked in the eighth, and his hit streak was over.
Weaver’s only real trouble came when he issued walks to Ian Kinsler and Guerrero to open the fourth. Hamilton grounded back to the mound, the runners advancing, but Weaver struck out Nelson Cruz with a changeup and got David Murphy to fly to center.
“That’s as hot and as good a lineup as there is in baseball,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of the Rangers. “But Weav has no fear on the mound. He’s going to execute his pitches in tight spots.... That’s what you want from your lead dog, to give you a chance to win these games.”
The Angels scored their runs on doubles by Howie Kendrick in the first inning and Mike Napoli in the sixth, and they barely survived the eighth, in which Texas scored a run against Rodney on Kinsler’s broken-bat bloop to left-center to trim the lead to 2-1.
With two on and one out, Guerrero grounded to third to start what appeared to be an inning-ending double play. But umpire Gary Darling ruled — correctly, as replays showed — that Kendrick’s foot was off the second-base bag when he caught Brandon Wood’s throw from third. Kendrick threw to first in time to get Guerrero.
Hamilton was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Rodney threw a 2-and-2 pitch to Cruz to the backstop, but the runners held. Cruz then popped to second, ending the inning.
“Things got a little hairy in the eighth,” Scioscia said. “But Fernando made some pitches when he had to.”
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