Joel Pineiro and Angels smother Dodgers, 10-1

In recent days, Manager Joe Torre talked about how the Dodgers were playing the kind of games that are played in October.

But on Friday night, they flashed back to April.

Chad Billingsley pitched the way he did in that miserable month, as did George Sherrill, the two erratic former All-Stars each serving up a bases-clearing double to send the Dodgers crashing to a 10-1 defeat to the Angels in the first game of the Freeway Series at Dodger Stadium.

Joel Pineiro (5-6) scored three runs for the Angels and tossed a complete game, limiting the Dodgers to five hits and a walk.

Billingsley (6-4), who appeared to emerge from his early-season funk last month, was charged with a career-high seven earned runs in 52/3 innings, including three on a double by Hideki Matsui in the fifth inning. Sherrill recorded the final out of the sixth inning, but walked Bobby Abreu with the bases loaded and gave up a double to Torii Hunter before doing so.

For the Angels, their victory moved them to within one-half game of the first-place Texas Rangers in the American League.

The Angels are 9-3 on their current trip, which included stops in Kansas City, Seattle and Oakland. The last time they won that many games on a single trip was April 12-26, 1984, when they visited Oakland, Minnesota, Toronto and Boston.

There was another “first time since” for the Angels: the three runs scored by Pineiro, something no Angels pitcher had done since Ken McBride touched home plate three times on June 10, 1962, against the Kansas City Athletics.

Pineiro drew two walks against Billingsley and reached base another time when Billingsley threw a wild pitch on a strikeout.

Like after many of his previous rough nights, Billingsley encountered trouble when trying to explain what happened. But he at least took responsibility the loss, saying, “I didn’t get the job done today.”

Billingsley’s rough night was interpreted as a positive sign for the Angels.

“We beat a guy tonight who had been throwing the ball very well,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said.

“We were underperforming on the offensive side for a long time.”

The first major blow against the Dodgers was struck by a player familiar to Torre, as a double by a former Yankee put the Angels ahead, 4-1.

“I don’t want to talk about Matsui,” Torre said. “I don’t like him.”

Torre was kidding, of course.

Torre removed Billingsley from the game with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth inning. He called on Sherrill, who hadn’t pitched since being activated from the 15-day disabled list Tuesday.

Sherrill entered the game with an earned-run average of 7.36. That figure inflated to 7.80 after he walked Abreu on five pitches and threw a high fastball that Hunter drove to the wall in right-center. The Angels extended their lead to 8-1. Hunter is five for five with 12 runs batted in with the bases loaded this season.

“Man, I need to go to the casino, definitely,” Hunter said.

Sherrill blamed home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg.

“Three straight right there, you don’t get the call,” Sherrill said of when he faced Abreu. “The next guy, it’s still bases loaded. With a round plate, you have to throw it down the middle.”

Sherrill said that before he forced Matsui to ground out to end the inning, he threw two pitches in the same location. One was called a strike. The other wasn’t.

“I don’t know what you have to do in this league to get a call,” he said.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com