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Colon continues mastery of Rangers

May 13, 2007 - 1:41 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim made it easy for Bartolo Colon. For one of the few times against the Texas Rangers, the ace righthander needed a little help.

Colon continued his domination of the Rangers, and the Angels jumped out to a five-run lead after two innings en route to a 6-3 victory on Saturday.

That was more than enough of a cushion for Colon, who beat the Rangers for the 12th consecutive time, the longest active streak for many American League pitchers over one opponent.

"I don't know how to explain it," Colon said about the streak through an interpretor. "Coming up with the Indians, Texas really had my number. Even now if you look at my ERA against them they give me a tough time, but there's no way to explain what's been going on lately."

Colon (4-0) had to come out of his last start against the Chicago White Sox with a right triceps strain, a disturbing sign since he missed most of last season recovering from rotator cuff surgery.

"The tricep is getting looser and it really wasn't an issue today," Colon said. "I felt a little something, but as I threw more and more in the heat, it seemed to really loosen up. I didn't really think about it on the mound today."

The burly righthander, who turns 34 on May 24, allowed three runs and five hits, including a two-run homer by Mark Teixeira in the fourth inning. He struck out six and walked two.

"If you watch him day in and day out against this team, he's had to work," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Colon. "When he misses a little, they can make him pay. He has pitched well against Texas but it hasn't been a cakewalk."

Orlando Cabrera went 3-for-5 and rookie Reggie Willits, Casey Kotchman and Shea Hillenbrand had two hits apiece for Anaheim, which extended its winning streak to four games.

The Angels put up a pair of early runs in the first, although it could have been worse after they loaded the bases with no outs.

Gary Matthews Jr. drove in one run with a sacrifice fly and Kotchman singled in another for a 2-0 lead, but Kameron Loe (1-3) got out of it by striking out Erick Aybar and picking Kotchman off first base.

The Rangers stayed on the offensive with three runs in the second, all coming with two out.

Chone Figgins walked, moved to third on Willits' single and scored on right fielder Nelson Cruz's throwing error. Cabrera and Vladimir Guerrero followed with back-to-back RBI doubles to push the margin to 5-0.

"We need the guys at the top of the order to set the table for Vlad (Guerrero)," Scioscia said. "Then we need the guys behind him to take advantage of what he's helped create. It was huge today for Gary (Matthews) and Kotch (Kotchman) to pick up RBIs for us."

Teixeira's blast made it 5-2 and the Rangers got within 5-3 in the sixth with another run off Colon.

Kenny Lofton singled to lead off the inning, moved to third on Michael Young's single and scored on a single by Sammy Sosa.

Kotchman atoned for his earlier pickoff in the eighth. He had a one-out single, went to third on a sacrifice fly and throwing error and scored on Hillenbrand's single for a 6-3 lead.

Scot Shields got out of a second-and-third, one-out jam in the seventh and pitched a scoreless eighth before Francisco Rodriguez worked around a leadoff single in the ninth for his 12th save.

"The situation we found ourselves in, in the seventh was not a good one," Scioscia said, "but the pitches that Shields threw to Teixeira to get him swinging were nasty. It was huge for us at that point of the game."

Loe, who lost his third straight decision, gave up five runs and eight hits, walking two and striking out two.

"Kam left his heart out there today," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "He certainly gave us what we were looking for and if we were solid on the defensive end, Colon doesn't get another win."