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Guerrero, Santana help Angels edge Tigers

Apr 26, 2008 - 4:10 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim understood it was going to take everything Ervin Santana had, and then some, to defeat the surging Detroit Tigers. They barely got it.

Vladimir Guerrero homered and Santana logged six-plus strong innings, leading the Angels to a 4-3 win over the Tigers on Friday.

Detroit entered the contest having won its previous five games, outscoring its opponents, 42-11, during the streak. Meanwhile, Santana - who has yet to allow more than three runs in any of his five starts - needed 111 pitches over 6 1/3 innings to pick up his first career win in Detroit.

"He is really focused," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He's watching films and does his work hard every day. When you can hit the corner at 97 miles per hour, you're doing things right."

Santana (4-0) won his third straight start, allowing three runs and six hits with two walks and four strikeouts.

"My confidence? (It's at) 300 percent right now," Santana said.

The Angels scored all four of their runs in the fourth. Chone Figgins led off with a double and, after Gary Matthews Jr. grounded out, Guerrero hammered a fastball from Nate Robertson (0-3) over the wall in left field for his third home run of the season.

"He's a freak of nature," Robertson said of Guerrero. "I really don't know what to say about it. I threw him the kitchen sink in that at-bat. I threw everything I had. (I) went away from him, came back inside and he got me."

Torii Hunter followed with a double and, two batters later, Erick Aybar reached on an infield single. Jeff Mathis drew a walk to load the bases, and Casey Kotchman took advantage two pitches later by singling up the middle to score Hunter and Aybar and give Anaheim a brief 4-0 advantage.

Detroit responded with two runs of its own in the bottom half. Curtis Granderson hit a solo homer for the second straight game and Magglio Ordonez added a run-scoring groundout to halve the deficit.

The Tigers scored once more in the sixth on a fielder's choice by Miguel Cabrera, but the Angels' relief corps buckled down from that point on, stranding seven baserunners between the sixth and eighth innings.

Santana was relieved by lefthander Darren Oliver after allowing two of the first three batters in the seventh to reach base.

Oliver retired Granderson before giving way to righthander Darren O'Day, who walked Placido Polanco to load the bases before inducing a flyout to the warning track by Gary Sheffield that ended the threat.

"Sheffield just missed hitting one out," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "That's a tough spot, way out there, and he just happened to hit it in the wrong area. We just couldn't come up with that one hit when we needed it. ... I thought it was a good ballgame. We just got beat."

O'Day worked out of another jam in the eighth and closer Francisco Rodriguez set down the Tigers in order in the ninth for his 10th save in 11 chances.

Robertson surrendered four runs and six hits with a walk and three strikeouts in seven innings - his longest outing of the season.