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Haren shuts down Angels, gets first win

Apr 18, 2007 - 11:40 PM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- All Dan Haren wanted was a little support from his offense.

Haren pitched seven strong innings and Eric Chavez drove in two runs as the Oakland Athletics downed the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 3-0, to sweep the two-game series.

Haren (1-2), who had received just one run of support in his first two starts of the season, yielded four hits and struck out three without walking a batter.

"It was another quality performance by one of our starting pitchers," Athletics manager Bob Geren said. "He matched a great pitcher like John Lackey and kept us in the game. In a game like this, with two good pitchers going, it doesn't take too much. We strung together a couple of hits in the third and that's all it took."

The righthander, who was just 2-5 with a 4.58 ERA in his career against the Angels, broke a personal four-game losing streak.

"When you go first you're going to run into guys like that pretty much every start," Angels starter John Lackey said. "It's something you have to deal with and try to give up one less then the other guy."

Reliever Justin Duchscherer worked around a hit in the eighth to bridge the gap to closer Huston Street, who struck out two in the ninth for his fourth save in as many chances.

With the Athletics leading, 1-0, in the third inning, Chavez doubled the advantage with an RBI single that plated Marco Scutaro. In his next at-bat in the fifth, the All-Star third baseman drove in Shannon Stewart with another single to cap the scoring.

Stewart and Todd Walker also had two hits for Oakland, which won its season-high third straight game and have taken four of the six meetings between the clubs this season, including the last two without Anaheim slugger Vladimir Guerrero, out after being struck on the left hand by a pitch on Monday in Boston.

"They're are a little beat up, there's no doubt about it," Chavez said. "That's why we have to take advantage of them while they're down."

"With Vlad (Guerrero) out of the lineup, this was a game that we needed to have," Haren said. "They are a division rival and we need to take advantage of any breaks we get. It was nice to win two games that we should have."

Orlando Cabrera had two hits for the Angels, who have dropped six straight games and seven of eight since starting the season at 5-1. They have been outscored 36-6 during the six-game slide.

"We're as stagnant as I've seen," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Right now, the faucet been turned off. We need to just keep inching forward, keep moving along. Early in the game, we worked some deep counts but weren't able to get that hit with guys in scoring position to give us a chance. This can turn around in a hurry on the offensive side, but right now it's frustrating."

Lackey (2-2) surrendered three runs and eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts over seven innings.