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Escobar gets help from offense in win over Dodgers

Jun 18, 2007 - 12:54 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Kelvim Escobar and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim continue to have success in the Freeway series.

Escobar pitched seven solid innings and the Angels' offense belted out 16 hits on Sunday en route to a 10-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the finale of a three-game interleague series.

Escobar (8-3), who has posted a 3-1 record with a 2.86 ERA in four career starts against the Dodgers, yielded three runs and eight hits with two walks and eight strikeouts.

"The most important thing today was Kelvim Escobar," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "At times he bent, but he didn't break. He had great stuff against a good lineup." The 31-year-old Escobar struck out 14 batters over six innings in a 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday.

"I've always been a strikeout pitcher, I guess because my stuff is good," Escobar said. "But you have mix it up and be able to finish off hitters. I'm not trying to (punch out) anybody, I'm just trying to get people out. It's always good when you get K's." The Angels, who have a 5-1 record against the Dodgers this season, had five players with multi-hit performances, which included three hits from Howie Kendrick and Orlando Cabrera.

The Angels took the lead in the third with a four-run inning against Randy Wolf (8-5). Vladimir Guerrero and Robb Quinlan had back-to-back RBI singles. Kendrick then doubled in Guerrero and Mike Napoli followed with a sacrifice fly to plate Shea Hillenbrand to give the Angels a 4-1 advantage.

"I just think that inning, (Chone) Figgins started things off (with a single) and got it rolling, and we just kept it going," Quinlan said. "I think the biggest thing is stretching some hits together to score some runs, and that's what we did that inning."

The Dodgers cut the deficit to 4-2 in the fifth inning on Nomar Garciaparra's RBI single, but the Angels answered in the sixth when Cabrera doubled to plate Reggie Willits.

Kendrick singled in Gary Matthews Jr. and Figgins added a two-run base hit to open up an 8-2 Angels lead in the seventh.

Matthews hit an inside-the-park home run in the eighth inning after Dodgers right fielder James Loney ran into the wall attempting to make the catch. He had to be carted off the field and was diagnosed with a bruised right knee.

"I just hit my knee pretty hard," Loney said. "I thought I could get to it. (The wall) just comes up quick on you."

Willits then hit an RBI double to give the Angels a 10-3 advantage. Wolf was relieved after five innings, surrendering four runs and seven hits with three walks.

"I was pretty bad out there today," Wolf said. "I need to make better adjustments than I did today. When you're not locating your fastball, you make them a better hitter than they already are. My fastball was all over the place." Rafael Furcal gave the Dodgers an early lead when he homered to lead off the first inning.