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Santana overcomes offense, defense to stymie Phillies

Jun 21, 2008 - 5:04 AM By Vince DiGregorio PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim committed four errors and left 16 men on base, but it did not cost them with Ervin Santana pitching.

Santana pitched seven strong innings and the Angels posted a season-high 17 hits in a 7-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the opener of a three-game interleague series on Friday.

Santana (9-3) allowed only one unearned run on two hits with two walks and nine strikeouts in winning for the first time in three starts. He held the Phillies hitless after the second inning and retired 16 of the last 18 batters he faced before yielding to rookie Jose Arredondo to start the eighth.

"When I was warming up in the bullpen, I knew that I had good stuff," Santana said. "I just brought the warm-up (session) into the game. I kept the ball down. I didn't change anything. I tried to get ahead (in the count). All of the strikeouts came on sliders."

"(Santana's) breaking stuff had us off-balance," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "They couldn't guess with him."

The righthander rebounded from a poor outing last Saturday in a loss to the Atlanta Braves, where he gave up six runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings.

"Ervin has been very consistent all season," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He's shown that kind of stuff he had tonight in virtually every start.

"(The Phillies) have got a terrific hitting lineup that can get back into a game at any time and I thought it was just a great performance from Ervin. He threw some off-speed (pitches) on some hitting counts, which is a part of his game."

The four errors - two each by first baseman Casey Kotchman and catcher Jeff Mathis - and the 16 men left on base were also season highs for the Angels.

"Casey Kotchman might be the best defensive first baseman in our league and had a couple of balls that he couldn't get a handle on," Scioscia said. "Jeff's a terrific defensive catcher and a couple of throws got away from him. We, fortunately, had enough offense to absorb it."

Vladimir Guerrero ended a seven-game homerless drought with a two-run, first-inning blast to stake Santana and the Angels to a 2-0 advantage.

With his 3-for-5 performance Friday, he is batting .434 (23-for-53) in the month of June after batting only .219 in May.

"Vlad is a special player," Scioscia said. "I think even when he's not locked in, he's putting up some numbers where a lot of guys would be happy with them. Very rarely does he have a start of a season that's so prolonged where he's struggling."

Guerrero's homer was his 29th career against Philadelphia and his three RBI gave him a total of 91 against it. For his career, he is hitting .370 (118-for-319) against the Phillies.

"I always swing the bat good here, but it used to be in the old (Veterans Stadium)," Guerrero said through an interpreter. "My first game in the new park and I'm continuing to swing the bat good against the Phillies."

Center fielder Torii Hunter, who had one of six doubles by the Angels, compared Guerrero to a famous cartoon character.

"When he goes to the plate, he's ready to hit like Bam-Bam from the Flintstones," Hunter said. "That's what I call him."

Garret Anderson's RBI single in the second gave the Angels a 3-0 lead after two innings, but after that they squandered numerous chances to increase their lead before finally breaking the game open in the sixth inning. They batted around and got run-scoring singles from Guerrero and Kotchman and an RBI double from Howie Kendrick to double their lead at 6-0.

Kendrick tied a career high with four hits.

A sacrifice fly by Chase Utley got Philadelphia on the board in the sixth before Mathis doubled in a run for the Angels in the seventh to make it 7-1.

Phillies starter Adam Eaton (2-5) got the first two outs in the first inning before Anderson doubled and Guerrero drove the first pitch into the left field seats for a two-run home run.

Following Anderson's second-inning double, Anaheim had a chance to break the game open in the third when it loaded the bases with one out, but Santana grounded into an inning-ending, 1-2-3 double play. The Angels also left two runners on in both the fourth and fifth innings.

Eaton (2-5) surrendered six runs on 12 hits over five-plus innings to suffer the loss.