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Weaver strikes out career-high 10, Angels win 8-1

Jun 4, 2009 - 3:10 AM TORONTO(AP) -- Jered Weaver doesn't consider himself at the same level as Roy Halladay. He still did a fair impression of the Toronto ace Wednesday night.

One night after Halladay beat Los Angeles by striking out a career-high 14, Weaver fanned a career-high 10 to lead the Angels to an 8-1 victory over the Blue Jays.

The right-hander won back-to-back starts for the first time this season and has an ERA of 1.64 in his past six.

"When he has stuff like that, you can almost put down any (sign) and know he's going to throw it for a strike or put it where it needs to be," catcher Jeff Mathis said.

Weaver used a hard-breaking slider to hold the Blue Jays to just three hits, two walks and one run in seven innings.

"The slider is a lot sharper," Weaver said. "I've been trying to mess around with a couple of different grips over the past couple of years. Me and (pitching coach Mike Butcher) worked on one in spring training and it's come around and I've gotten a good grasp on where to put it and where to locate it. That's been the things that's been working for me."

Bobby Abreu homered and Chone Figgins had three hits, drove in a run and scored twice for the Angels, who finished with seven extra-base hits.

"Last night we faced a tough pitcher but there was no carry-over," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We did a good job offensively."

Scioscia said Weaver, who has allowed just one earned run in five of his past six outings, has the potential to join Halladay, teammate John Lackey and Kansas City's Zack Greinke among the top tier of AL starters.

"His game is where it needs to be for him to have the opportunity to put himself into that elite class of starting pitchers," Scioscia said.

While his manager considers him among the candidates for the All-Star game, Weaver isn't getting ahead of himself when it comes to membership among the league's best.

"I don't really think of myself on that level," he said. "Those guys are unbelievable. You just try to strive to be as good as they are and try to do the good things that they do. Just sitting back and watching them, you learn a lot."

But with two wins in two starts against Toronto this season, including a three-hitter on May 7, he's certainly got the attention of the Blue Jays.

"The less we see him, the better off we are," manager Cito Gaston said. "Something must be happening somewhere, he's just 5-2. The way he's throwing the ball against us, he should be 10-2."

Weaver didn't allow a hit through the first four innings but doubles by Adam Lind and Lyle Overbay gave Toronto a run in the fifth.

Jason Bulger and Jose Arredondo finished with an inning each and the Angels moved back above .500 at 26-25.

Blue Jays right-hander Casey Janssen allowed five runs and seven hits in four innings.

Janssen (1-2) came in 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in two career starts against the Angels but his scoreless streak ended after just two batters. Figgins led off with a single and scored when Abreu hit his second homer of the season.

Vladimir Guererro followed with a double, moved to third on a grounder and scored on Juan Rivera's sacrifice fly.

Figgins doubled and scored on a single by Kendry Morales in the third and the Angels chased Janssen with another run in the fourth. Erick Aybar doubled and came around on Figgins' second double of the game.

Janssen walked one, struck out two and his ERA rose from 4.15 to 5.82.

"I was just kind of fighting everything tonight," Janssen said. "It just started off bad and didn't get much better."

The Angels added three more in the eighth against reliever Jesse Carlson when Aybar hit an RBI single and Abreu added a two-run double.

Notes: Angels INF Howie Kendrick was held out of the starting lineup one day after he lost track of the number of outs and was doubled off first base. Scioscia denied the move was punishment for Kendrick, who is batting just .227. OF Torii Hunter also got the day off, a break from the turf. ... Lind had three hits for the Blue Jays, including a pair of doubles. ... Formerly known as SkyDome, Rogers Centre opened 20 years ago with a gala celebration on June 3, 1989. The first baseball game, against Milwaukee, was played two days later. ... Singer Avril Lavigne threw out the first pitch.