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Kendrick's homer in the ninth leads Angels past Orioles

Jun 30, 2007 - 4:27 AM BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- After blowing a five-run lead, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim turned to Howie Kendrick to finish the deal.

Kendrick hit a two-out homer in the top of the ninth as the Angels posted a 9-7 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday.

Los Angeles won despite allowing Baltimore to tie the game and take the lead in a four-run fifth. The Angels also survived Aubrey Huff becoming just the third Oriole ever to hit for the cycle, joining Brooks Robinson in 1960 and Cal Ripken in 1984.

"With the night that Huff had, we were lucky to have recovered a win," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.

Kendrick belted a 1-0 pitch off Chris Ray (4-6) over the center field wall with Gary Matthews Jr. aboard to make it 9-7.

"I was just trying to get a hit, but it happened to be a home run," Kendrick said. "It was over the plate, and I was able to get it."

Reliever Scot Shields (2-2) went two-thirds of the eighth to earn the win and Francisco Rodriguez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his 23rd save in 25 opportunities.

Trailing, 7-6, in the eighth, the Angels tied the game on a run-scoring single by Chone Figgins. A home run by Cabrera in the seventh closed the deficit to one runs.

"One of the guys we haven't given enough credit to for re-emerging our offense is Chone," Scioscia said. "What he's done is spectacular. Right now, he's in his game, and you can see he's making a difference."

Huff hit a go-ahead three-run homer off Los Angeles starter Kelvim Escobar to give the Orioles a 7-5 lead in the fifth. It was Huff's third hit. He capped off his cycle with a one-out single in the seventh inning.

"When that flashed up there, that's pretty special. It's just a weird game," Huff said. "Today was the best I've felt up there all year. The ball looked really, really big for the first time all year."

Huff's triple in the second inning was the 1,000th hit of his major league career, and his double in the fourth inning was his 200th career two-bagger.

"He got the hard ones out of the way first, and you don't usually see it that way," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said.

Escobar was tagged for seven runs an season-high 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings.

"You go out and try to execute and get what you get," Escobar said. "That's the way it is sometimes."

Orioles starting pitcher Steve Trachsel did not make it out of the second inning, allowing five runs and nine hits in 1 1/3 innings. It was his shortest outing of the season.

"Everything that he threw tonight, they hit," Trembley said. "They jumped on him early and often."