After shaky start, Angels’ C.J. Wilson thrives in victory over Twins

C.J. Wilson had barely completed his warmup pitches before Sunday’s game at Target Field when the Angels pitcher found himself in a heap of trouble.

The first two Twins batters reached on singles, and you could sense some concern in the Angels dugout. Wilson escaped that jam by striking out Joe Mauer and getting Kennys Vargas to ground into a double play.

But when Wilson walked the first three batters in the second and gave up a two-run double to Aaron Hicks and a sacrifice fly to Brian Dozier, the Angels dugout -- and bullpen -- went on high alert.

“He started off the game with some of the same traits that have gotten him in trouble in some of his starts,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Walking the bases loaded in the second doesn’t give you much chance to get off the ground.”

With Garrett Richards (left knee surgery) out for the year, the Angels need Wilson to be a solid No. 2 starter behind Jered Weaver for the playoffs, but the veteran left-hander’s performance lately has been like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates -- you never know what you’re going to get.

Wilson had a six-start stretch from June 24 to Aug. 7 when he had an 11.03 earned-run average and gave up 43 hits in 23 2/3 innings. Then he had a superb four-start stretch from Aug. 12-28 in which he went 2-0 with a 2.63 ERA.

Wilson struggled in Houston on Tuesday night, when he gave up five runs and eight hits and walked four in 3 1/3 innings of an 8-3 loss. And when he threw only 27 of his first 51 pitches Sunday for strikes and gave up three early runs, it appeared he might not make it to the third inning.

But Wilson, as he often does, righted himself, retiring 15 of 16 batters from the end of the second inning to the seventh en route to a 6 1/3-inning, three-run, four-hit effort in an eventual 14-4 victory over the Twins.

“After the second inning, there were some definite adjustments,” Scioscia said. “He was able to command some pitches more and get ahead in the count and let his pitches play.

“It ended up being a good outing for him. He had 50 pitches and wasn’t even through the second, and he winds up getting into the seventh. That says a lot. It’s very encouraging.”

The key, Wilson said, was finding better command of his cut-fastball and remaining confident that the Angels offense, which banged out a season-high 19 hits, would provide sufficient support.

“I didn’t really make a drastic change or anything like that,” Wilson said. “It was just knowing that, especially after we scored and got those runs back, I felt like ‘OK, we’re scoring runs today. Yeah, I gave up three, but we’re going to score.’ I had that kind of confidence knowing that I can throw the ball where they couldn’t hurt me.”

He said he hopes Sunday’s performance will help restore some confidence in him.

“If you have a bad game, you always want to come out and have a good game,” said Wilson, who is 11-9 with a 4.64 ERA this season. “It shows that last start was more of a blip, I guess. The last five or six games have kind of been trending in the right direction.”