Angels change meager ways for Santana

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The Angels had backed Ervin Santana with mostly zeroes the last few weeks, combining for a not-so-grand total of three runs in his last three starts.

They equaled that total in the seventh inning alone Saturday at Rangers Ballpark during a much-needed 6-2 victory over the Texas Rangers.

Erick Aybar had three of the Angels’ 13 hits in the game, newly acquired Alberto Callaspo drove in two runs and Jeff Mathis homered on a night in which Santana might have liked to hold some of that in reserve.

The right-hander gave up five hits and two runs in eight innings, helping the Angels trim their deficit in the American League West to six games behind the Rangers.

“You have to play like it’s the last game,” Santana, who struck out eight and walked two, said when asked about the importance of the game. “Play hard. If we win, we win. If not, it’s not because you played lazy.”

Santana (9-7) has been the Angels’ most reliable starter this month, averaging nearly eight innings and compiling a 2.30 earned-run average over his last four starts. Yet he had been 0-2 with a no-decision in his three starts preceding Saturday’s outing because his teammates had averaged only one run in those games.

He held the Rangers scoreless until Michael Young sent a 93-mph fastball over the wall in left-center field with two out and the bases empty in the sixth inning, the third consecutive game in which the Rangers third baseman has homered. Nelson Cruz added a solo homer in the seventh against Santana, who had an 8.05 ERA in nine previous starts in this ballpark.

Angels setup man Fernando Rodney faced the heart of the Rangers’ order in the ninth, striking out Vladimir Guerrero, Nelson Cruz and Bengie Molina, yielding only a one-out double to Josh Hamilton.

By then, the Angels were well on their way to their first victory in five games here this season. They scored three times as many runs as they had tallied in the first two games of the series combined, resulting in a rare easy win in a season series in which six of the eight games have been decided by one run.

“It’s very comfortable when we score first and score a lot of runs,” Santana said.

The Angels opened the seventh with four consecutive hits, including a run-scoring single by Maicer Izturis and a run-scoring double by Bobby Abreu that extended their advantage to 6-2.

Mathis had given the Angels their first lead of the series in the fifth when he hit a two-out solo homer to left-center against starter Scott Feldman (5-9), the ball hitting the top of the wall and bouncing over. Reggie Willits followed with a single to right and scored on Aybar’s triple into the right-field corner.

The mini-outburst ended a streak of 25 innings without multiple runs, the Angels last scoring two runs in the sixth inning of a 10-6 loss to the New York Yankees on Wednesday.

There was some concern that the Angels had been too tight in the first two games of the series, but Manager Mike Scioscia said “it’s not an issue of being focused. It’s a matter of them being free and relaxed. Maybe we were gripping [the bat] too hard, trying to do too much [and] not bringing our game onto the field.

“But no one put a ‘must-win’ tag on this game. We need to play good, consistent baseball, and if we do that we’re confident we’ll reach our goal. If we struggle with that, the challenge becomes tougher.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com