ANGELS PUT END TO LOSING STREAK ORTIZ GETS TEAM-HIGH 12TH VICTORY ANGELS 3, TAMPA BAY 1.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - For five games, they made it look so hard.

``I don't think we did anything particularly well,'' closer Troy Percival said of the Angels' season-high five-game losing streak to start the second half.

Tuesday afternoon, the Angels made it look a little easier, getting seven strong innings from Ramon Ortiz and snapping that losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Tropicana Field.

Ortiz, who won his team-high 12th game, got past early command problems and twice stranded a runner at third with less than two outs to keep the Angels in the game. Their struggling 1-2 hitters, David Eckstein and Darin Erstad, reached base a combined four times and scored all three runs.

And for the first time since July 1, the Angels (50-48) were able to execute the pitching script that makes them successful - get seven innings from a starter, an inning from set-up man Brendan Donnelly and then Percival to close it in the ninth, which he did for his 21st save.

Piece of cake, right? Not when things aren't breaking your way.

``Winning seems so easy sometimes,'' said Erstad, who was hitless in 10 at-bats before contributing a key sacrifice bunt and two singles in his last three trips. ``Sometimes, winning is a grind. We had to grind one out today, using all parts of our game.''

It started with Ortiz (12-7), who won for the sixth time after an Angels loss. He might've pitched a shutout were it not for a two-out throwing error by third baseman Scott Spiezio in the second inning, which enabled Travis Lee to score for a 1-0 Devil Rays lead.

Lee had reached on a leadoff walk and Ortiz issued a free pass to three of the first five left-handed batters he faced. But after that, both Ortiz and the defense were much tighter.

Usually a flyball pitcher, Ortiz used a changeup to induce 10 groundouts and strike out six Devil Rays. And he was at his best when danger was high.

In the fourth, with the game tied 1-1, he gave up a one-out single to Marlon Anderson and hit Antonio Perez, then the two teamed up on a double steal to put runners at second and third.

Ortiz got No. 3 hitter Aubrey Huff to flail at a pitch in the dirt for the second out, then ended the inning by getting Rocco Baldelli to ground to Spiezio.

Eckstein and Erstad boosted the Angels into the lead, hitting singles to start the sixth inning, and Eckstein scored on Tim Salmon's sacrifice fly to make it 2-1.

Ortiz then created a mess for himself by committing a two-base throwing error on a pickoff move after Damian Rolls' one-out single in the bottom of the inning. But with the tying run at third and the infield in, Ortiz got Al Martin to ground to first baseman Shawn Wooten, who made a nice short-hop play. Javier Valentin also grounded to Wooten to end Tampa Bay's last major threat.

``When the game's 1-1, you gotta pitch,'' Ortiz said. ``I made a lot of good pitches. You lose your concentration, you have trouble. You make a pitch, you don't have problems.''