ANGELS BACK TO OLD WAYS LOSE ANOTHER CLOSE ONE TO A'S.

Byline: BEN VILLA

Staff Writer

ANAHEIM -- The Oakland Athletics and the Angels have combined to win the past five AL West titles. Their head-to-head meetings have become predictable -- close, low-scoring, with every pitch possibly deciding the outcome.

Sunday was no different.

Joe Blanton allowed just one run in 51/3 innings of work and Shannon Stewart and Nick Swisher each had RBI doubles as Oakland earned a split in the four-game series as they beat the Angels 2-1 in front of 37,783 at Angel Stadium.

The Angels had chances to score some runs early, but each time Blanton managed to wiggle out of trouble. The Angels were 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position and 4 for 33 in the series.

"Early on, we had opportunities to score but when we didn't, it came back to haunt us," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "... I thought Garret (Anderson) hit the ball well with runners on but the ball never dropped. We couldn't get that one hit to move guys along and they had a couple of big strikeouts when we had runners on third base."

After scoring eight runs for Kelvim Escobar on Tuesday, the Angels fell back into some bad habits by not giving him any run support.

Last season, the Angels scored three runs or less in 11 of Escobar's 14 losses, and Sunday was no different.The right-hander went sixinnings, allowing eight hits and two runs while striking out five.

But the Angels couldn't take advantage.

In the first inning, Gary Matthews Jr. reached second after an error with nobody out. But Blanton recovered and retired Orlando Cabrera, Vladimir Guerrero and Anderson to get out of the inning unscathed.

Then in the second, the Angels had runners on first and second with one out but Mike Napoli flew out and Erick Aybar struck out looking.

"I feel bad for the offense because we had chances to score, it just didn't happen today," Escobar said. "But that's baseball and all I can do is control what happens on the mound. I got into some trouble but I think I kept the game close and gave us a chance to win."

In the third inning, Escobar got the first two outs, but Jason Kendall singled and stole second. Stewart then doubled to right-center field to give the A's a 1-0 lead.

"I didn't pay any attention to Kendall and when I didn't, he ran," Escobar said.

In the fourth inning, Mike Piazza and Eric Chavez led off with singles and Piazza came around to score on a double from Swisher to give the A's a 2-0 lead.

The Angels managed to get a run home in the bottom of the sixth off A's reliever Alan Embree when Anderson scored on a one-out, infield single by Maicer Izturis. But with runners on first and third, Embree was able to strike out Napoli and Robb Quinlan, who pinch-hit for Aybar.

After the sixth inning, the Angels didn't have a baserunner, as they went down in order in the seventh, eighth and ninth.

Associated Press contributed

[e-mail]

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Oakland catcher Jason Kendall high-fives teammates in the dugout after scoring on a Shannon Stewart double.

Mark Avery/Associated Press