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Anderson, Lackey send Angels to fourth straight win

Jun 24, 2008 - 4:27 AM By Todd Jacobson PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- John Lackey's throwing error in the top of the seventh inning helped give Washington a brief glimmer of hope Monday night. But it didn't take long for Lackey's teammates to pick him up.

Garret Anderson singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning Monday, sending the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to their fourth straight victory - a 3-2 interleague win over the Washington Nationals.

Lackey (5-1) allowed six hits and two runs - one earned - over eight strong innings to win his fourth straight start, but he had to overcome some adversity to secure the Angels' 15th comeback victory.

The Angels are 32-13 in games decided by two runs or less, winning seven of their last eight one-run contests.

"I don't think it's natural, it ain't ever natural; you'd like to be winning by more," Angels third baseman Chone Figgins said. "But our pitching staff keeps us in the ballgame and we're playing great defense and we're getting some timely hitting, stuff like that keeps you in ballgames pretty much every night."

With the game tied at 1-1 in the seventh, Lackey seemed to catch a break when pinch hitter Paul Lo Duca lined a pitch right into his midsection, but after snaring Lo Duca's liner for one out, Lackey threw wildly past third base and Willie Harris scampered home to give Washington a brief 2-1 lead.

"It all happened pretty quick," Lackey said. "It's not like I thought that one out or it wouldn't have happened."

But with Nationals starter Jason Bergmann gone and Saul Rivera on in relief, Figgins led off the top of the eighth inning with a drag bunt. Third baseman Pete Orr and Rivera collided on the play, with Rivera ending up on his back without a shoe as Figgins easily sprinted to first.

Then, the mistakes piled up. Figgins stole second and went to third on a throwing error by Washington catcher Jesus Flores. With no outs and the Nationals' infield drawn in, Erick Aybar ripped a grounder under the glove of second baseman Felipe Lopez, allowing Figgins to jog home with the tying run.

On the play, Aybar never broke stride, making his way to second base on the two-base error.

"He just couldn't catch a ground ball," Nationals manager Manny Acta said of Lopez. "I'm not going to over-analyze anything. He should've had the ground ball and didn't catch it, that's it."

Aybar said he noticed Nationals right fielder Elijah Dukes took his time getting to the ball.

"He (Dukes) didn't move too fast, so I looked at the ball, and I said, Let me go to second base." Aybar said.

Anderson rewarded Aybar's hustle three pitches later when he lined a single off Rivera (3-4) into right-center, allowing Aybar to score easily.

Closer Francisco Rodriguez pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his major league-leading 31st save in 33 chances.

The Angels' two-run outburst in the eighth inning overshadowed a solid outing from Bergmann, who turned in his second straight fine outing in a game that was delayed 70 minutes because of rain, holding the Angels to one run and six hits while striking out six over seven innings of work.

Vladimir Guerrero had one of those hits in the sixth inning, singling to extend his hitting streak to 14 games. Casey Kotchman and Aybar each had two hits for the Angels.