ANGELS DISMISS LOWLY TAMPA BAY 3 HRS SET UP EIGHTH WIN IN NINE GAMES ANGELS 9, TAMPA BAY 6.

Byline: Gordon Verrell Staff Writer

The Angels kept up their season-long rat-a-tat on the hapless Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Tuesday night with a 9-6 win in front of 16,131 fans at Edison Field.

It was the Angels' eighth win in their last nine games overall - and it got them two games above the .500 plateau (51-49) for the first time in more than three months, since April 13 when they were 6-4.

It was also their sixth win in seven games against the lowly D'Rays, an outfit on a rocky pace for 110 losses, a mere six fewer than the American League record for futility, established 85 years ago by the Philadelphia Athletics.

The Devil Rays didn't go quietly, however, and one reason they've spiffed up some is the addition of Chris Gomez, the former Long Beach State shortstop. Gomez, in his Tampa Bay debut, doubled in the sixth inning and in the eighth slugged a three-run homer.

But the Angels walloped three home runs against the Devil Rays, whose pitching staff ranks 28th out of 30 big-league clubs.

Garret Anderson supplied the key blow, a three-run homer in the fifth inning when the Angels went on top to stay. Scott Spiezio homered in the eighth inning. And in the sixth, Tim Salmon homered to right-center, his 10th of the season but his first in a month.

Left-hander Jarrod Washburn benefited for his ninth win in 13 decisions - and his eighth in a row. Washburn, who gave up six runs (three earned) on 11 hits, hasn't lost since May 8, and he's defeated Tampa Bay three times in his winning streak.

Al Levine finished up, retiring the only four batters he faced. It was his third career save and first in more than a year, since June 23, 2000, against Minnesota.

Normally, the ninth inning is reserved for Troy Percival, the Angels' ace closer. Except Percival was unavailable, having undergone X-rays and an MRI after reporting to the park complaining of back and hip spasms. The tests proved negative, according to the Angels' staff, and Percival's availability was listed as day to day.

The Devil Rays offered a splendid example of why they're where they are in the first inning. They did score two runs on four hits. But on one of them they managed to run themselves into an inning-ending double play, when two baserunners were caught in rundowns and tagged out.

The Angels got a run back in the bottom of the first when David Eckstein - who stroked the first pitch of the night by D'Rays left-hander Joe Kennedy for a double - eventually scored on a groundout by Darin Erstad.

Greg Vaughn hit his 23rd home run with two out in the third, making it a 3-1 game. In the fourth, the Angels cut the deficit to one when Erstad led off with a double - snapping a personal skid at 0 for 15 - and scored on a single by Anderson and an error in right field by Randy Winn.

Anderson clubbed his three-run homer in the fifth, No. 17 for the season, the highlight of the Angels' four-run burst.

Salmon then homered in the sixth inning. After the D'Rays closed to within a run, 7-6, on Gomez's three-run homer, his first with Tampa Bay, the Angels scored two runs in the eighth, one on Spiezio's homer to right.