Angels pick up Jered Weaver, beat Twins, 10-6

Jered Weaver wobbled, but the Angels didn’t fall down.

On a night the right-hander clearly did not have his best stuff, the Angels’ hitters and relievers brought theirs, picking up their ace in Saturday’s 10-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

Vernon Wells broke a 6-6 tie with a solo homer in the fifth inning, Peter Bourjos led off the sixth with a solo homer, and Wells added a run-scoring single in the sixth, as the Angels cut the Texas Rangers’ American League West lead to 3?1/2? games with 23 to play.

Bobby Cassevah, the unheralded right-hander who has moved up to third in the bullpen pecking order, replaced Weaver to start the sixth and gave up one hit in 2?2/3? scoreless innings before giving way to Scott Downs, who got the final four outs.

Weaver is 62-3 lifetime and 12-1 this season when given a lead of three runs or more, but he couldn’t hold a three-run advantage against the Twins, who roughed him up for six runs and eight hits in five innings.

Combined with last Sunday’s 9-5 loss to Texas, in which he gave up seven runs in six innings, Weaver has given up 13 runs in consecutive starts, the most in his career.

“You get spoiled watching him,” said first baseman Mark Trumbo, whose first-inning grand slam gave Weaver a 4-0 lead. “You expect him to throw up a ton of zeros every night, but I’m sure he’ll bounce back.”

Weaver’s start was pushed back a day so he could attend the funeral of his grandfather in Oregon on Friday, and he slipped while pushing off the rubber and landed awkwardly on a first-inning pitch, which brought Manager Mike Scioscia and a trainer to the mound.

But Weaver, who gave up only allowed just three runs in 47 innings of his previous six starts at home, said neither had to do with his struggles Saturday night.

“It was a tough day Friday, but I’m pretty good at letting stuff go on the mound,” said Weaver, who improved to 16-7 but had saw his earned-run average jump from 2.28 to 2.49. “The Twins made me work, and they hit mistakes, but our bullpen came in and shut them down, and our guys were better at the plate, which was awesome.”

Trumbo followed singles by Alberto Callaspo and Howie Kendrick and Torii Hunter’s walk in the first by crushing a hanging 0-and-2 curve from Brian Duensing over the wall in center field for the his first career grand slam of his career.

Trumbo’s 25th homer of the season had a familiar ring for Duensing, who tried to waste an 0-2 fastball up to Trumbo on Aug. 2. The rookie first baseman drove that ball 457 feet into the rock pile beyond center field for a three-run homer in a 5-1 Angels win.

The Twins scored three in the second when Danny Valencia hit a solo homer and Ben Revere and Trevor Plouffe hit RBI singles. The Twins and took advantage of Trumbo’s mental miscue in the fourth to erase a 6-3 lead and tie the score, 6-6.

With runners on first and third and one out, Revere hit a grounder that Trumbo fielded near first, but instead of stepping on the bag, he threw home.

One problem: Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who was on third, did not attempt to score. Revere was safe on the fielder’s choice, loading the bases for Plouffe, who lined a three-run double to left.

“It was a slow-hit ball, so I knew we wouldn’t have a double play if I threw to second,” Trumbo said. “I trusted my reaction and heard a ‘four’ call, so that’s where I threw it.”

But the offense did enough to absorb that mistake, racking up 14 hits, including Callaspo’s RBI double in the second, Erick Aybar’s RBI single in the third and Mike Trout’s RBI double in the sixth. The Angels also went and going five for 12 with runners in scoring position.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com