ANGELS LAUNCH HOMER BARRAGE ANDERSON, DAVANON SUPPLY POWER ANGELS 11, MONTREAL 2.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Garret Anderson smacked three home runs out of tiny Hiram Bithorn Stadium on Wednesday night and then called the part-time home of the Montreal Expos an unsuitable site for a major-league team.

``The park is small and the ball flys,'' he said. ``That's a bad combination.''

Jeff DaVanon is a little less discriminating.

``Yes, I would,'' he said when asked if he'd like to play every game here.

Can you blame him?

Four days ago, DaVanon was a little-known reserve outfielder nervously marking the time until center fielder Darin Erstad returned from the disabled list. Now, he and Anderson helped power their team into the record books as the Angels hit a team-record seven home runs Wednesday in an 11-2 victory over the Expos in front of a disbelieving crowd of 10,501.

The Angels have hit 13 home runs in two games here. That ties the New York Yankees' American League record, set in a 1939 doubleheader, for home runs in a two-game span. DaVanon is in some august company himself.

It was DaVanon's third consecutive two-homer game, becoming just the fourth player to have three multi-homer games in a row. His six home runs in three games is one shy of Dodger Shawn Green's seven, accomplished last season.

And for the second consecutive game, he homered from both sides of the plate, something not accomplished since 1995, when Ken Caminiti did it for San Diego.

To be fair, DaVanon's second homer, an opposite-field shot from the right-hand side, was a ``Bithorn Ball.'' It was not particularly well-struck and barely crawled over the fence in right field, a mere 313 feet away from home plate. It was aided by a breeze blowing out to right field and a humidity-laced air that at that point was weeping raindrops.

But who's quibbling? After all, the guy's hit six home runs in three games.

``It was incredible the first game,'' he said of his streak that began Sunday in Tampa Bay. ``This is out of this world.''

But even DaVanon realized his second homer probably doesn't go out of any yard this side of Williamsport, Pa.

``I thought it was an out,'' he said. ``But thank God for the elements and God, I guess.''

The Angels entered this series ranked 11th in the American League in home runs.

Now, they're fourth, thanks to a lineup in a collective groove and a humid bandbox of a ballpark.

Of course, it's not all the elements.

Brad Fullmer's two-run shot off Sun-Woo Kim (0-1) in the second? Gone in any ballpark. Same for Anderson's first two home runs, and his third may have been, too.

DaVanon's left-handed shot in the sixth, like one of Anderson's, reached the top row of the bleachers in right field. But DaVanon's second homer and Troy Glaus' solo homer in the fifth, like DaVanon's an opposite-field shot, were the reason Anderson was calling this a bush-league joint.

But that only makes what the Angels pitchers have accomplished here all the more remarkable.

Ramon Ortiz and Jarrod Washburn, both flyball pitchers, have kept the ball down and their team in control. Wednesday, Washburn (5-4) powered through six innings, giving up five hits and just one run, coming on a Jose Macias home run in the fifth.

Gabe Lacques, [phone]

gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com

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Photo:

Jeff DaVanon, right, is congratulated by Angels teammate David Eckstein after DaVanon hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning.

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press