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Guerrero drives in four to back Lackey's 10th win

Jun 14, 2007 - 3:33 AM CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- The Cincinnati Reds' pitching staff took a collective sigh of relief the day Vladimir Guerrero left the Montreal Expos for the West Coast. They thought they would never have to worry about him again.

Guerrero brought back bitter memories with four RBI on Wednesday as the Angels beat the Reds, 6-3, in interleague play.

John Lackey (10-4) pitched six strong innings for Anaheim to become the first 10-game winner in the majors and Orlando Cabrera matched Guerrero with three hits. Guerrero hit Reds pitching at a .369 clip with 11 home runs and 38 RBI as a member of the Montreal Expos, but he came into Cincinnati hitless in his last 14 at-bats. However, after a run-scoring groundout in the first against Kyle Lohse (3-8), he broke out with an RBI double in the fourth and a two-run, two-bagger in the sixth against the Reds righthander.

"If we are worried about Vlad swinging the bat, our anxiety is misplaced," Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia said.

Guerrero took his hitting woes in stride.

"I do know those things in fact I need to correct them. When you get into a slump, little by little you figure out what you're doing wrong. I was swinging at bad pitches. It came back by seeing better pitches and swinging to them."

Guerrero has a reputation as a free swinger and a bad-ball hitter. He had one hit in seven at bats against Lohse coming into the game.

You try to throw the ball off the plate, and he still hits it," Cincinnati manager Jerry Narron said. "We have video on him, and Dick Pole has been with him. We had a good idea of what we wanted to do. You want to throw it where he can't reach it.

Lackey, who had his career-high five-game win streak snapped last Wednesday against Minnesota, did not allow a hit through three innings and was charged with three runs and three hits with a walk and four strikeouts.

"It's a good thing we won. We ended our losing streak," said Lackey of the Angels modest three-game slide. "We have several guys that are capable of stopping losing streaks."

Scot Shields held the Reds off the board in the seventh and eighth and closer Francisco Rodriguez struck out two in the ninth for his 20th save in 21 chances.

"Both of those guys were on their game," Lackey said. "And Vladimir, you can run this story four times a week. He is one of those guys you're going to tell your kids you played with."

"We saw three of the better pitchers in baseball tonight," Narron said. "We had a chance in the fourth with the bases loaded, and we did score two, but we just couldn't get the big hit to score a couple more."

Lohse was charged with four runs and seven hits in seven innings.

"The guys in front did their job, and I didn't do mine. I got ahead of them, but I still couldn't get them out," Lohse said. "Those were backbreakers for me. When I got to the top of the lineup, you've got to bear down and make pitches, and I didn't do that."

Chone Figgins led off the game with a double, advanced to third on a groundout by Cabrera and scored on Guerrero's groundout.

Cabrera singled to lead off the fourth and scored on a two-base hit to left by Guerrero, but Cincinnati rallied to take a 3-2 lead by the fifth. They loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth and got a run on an infield single by Edwin Encarnacion and scored a second run when rookie Josh Hamilton hit into a double play.

"John lost his release point there but did a good job of minimizing the damage," Scioscia said.

Scott Hatteberg's seventh homer in the fifth gave the Reds a short-lived edge, before Guerrero came through again in the sixth. He followed a walk to Figgins and a single by Cabrera with a double to deep center field against Lohse, scoring both for a 4-3 edge.

The Angels added another in the eighth for a 5-3 lead after loading the bases against reliever Todd Coffey on singles by Cabrera and Guerrero and an intentional walk to Gary Matthew, Jr. However, they scored just once - a one-out single up the middle by Garret Anderson - thanks in part by a great running catch in right-center field by Hamilton against Erick Aybar.

Cabrera capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the ninth.