Ervin Santana pitches in as Angels beat Orioles, 6-1

Reporting from Baltimore — No team in baseball has been better over the last 5½ weeks than the Angels. But on the mound, at least, it’s been pretty much a two-man show, with the team winning 80% of the games started by Jered Weaver and Dan Haren but struggling to keep its head above water when anyone else is pitching.

On Friday, in 104-degree heat and sweltering humidity, Ervin Santana made a bid to narrow that gap, holding the Baltimore Orioles hitless into the sixth inning in a 6-1 Angels win that was a lot closer than the score would suggest.

“We try to do the same thing they do,” Santana said of his two teammates. “They’ve been pitching very good. And we’re trying to follow that.

“It’s good for us. That way we learn more so we can bring it to [our] game.”

Apparently those lessons weren’t lost on Santana (5-8), who before Friday had one only once since late May. Against the Orioles, though, he was brilliant if not overpowering, allowing just two men to reach base through seven innings as the Angels built a 2-0 lead.

Then the weather appeared to get the best of him, with Baltimore turning a walk and two singles into an eighth-inning run.

“I wasn’t worried about how hot it was,” said Santana, who struck out only one batter. “But I knew it was hot.”

The same could not be said of the Angels’ offense, which is hitting .198 since the All-Star break. And though they scored six times Friday, only two of those runs were earned; the final four came in the ninth when Vernon Wells followed an error and an intentional walk with a two-out grand slam.

“We have to win games. That’s all that matters,” said Wells, who never played in a pennant race during his nine full seasons in Toronto. “That’s what’s fun about being over here. We’re playing meaningful baseball after the All-Star break.”

And if Santana keeps closing the gap between himself and the top of the rotation, the Angels just might keep playing meaningful games into October.

“Ervin’s been pitching much better than his won-lost record indicates,” said Scioscia, pointing to Santana’s 2-4 record and 2.89 ERA the last two months. “A lot of his losses were kind of close to tonight’s game. There wasn’t much support . . . and maybe there was a hit here that they got that swung the game maybe against us.”

Santana and Wells weren’t the only ones who put on a show Friday. Teenage rookie Mike Trout rewarded more than 200 friends and family members who made the two-hour drive from his hometown of Millville, N.J., by collecting his first two-hit game in the majors. He also scored twice and stole his first base.

“It was very special to me,” Trout said. “It’s one of the [few] opportunities I had to shine in front of my family. They don’t get to see me play as much as I would like.

“It was just an awesome day. A dream come true.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com