COLON IS GOOD; HUDSON BETTER OAKLAND 3, ANGELS 0.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - After every inning Friday night, Oakland Athletics starter Tim Hudson retreated to his dugout and draped a towel around his neck, looking more like a heavyweight fighter between rounds than a major- league pitcher between innings.

It was an appropriate look. Hudson spent the better part of Friday punching out the Angels.

In the first of 19 meetings between Team Moneyball and the best team Arte Moreno's money can buy, the A's got the first licks in, riding Hudson's dominant performance and a clutch bullpen bailout to a 3-0 victory over the Angels and their newly anointed $51 million ace, Bartolo Colon.

In pitching 7 1/3 scoreless innings, Hudson improved to 13-5 lifetime against the Angels. He is 2-0 this season with a 1.27 ERA and a 15 1/3- inning scoreless streak.

With Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito residing in Oakland, the Angels signed Colon and Kelvim Escobar in the offseason, hoping they would have the pitching to match up with the two-time defending American League West champions.

Colon (2-1), in his first start against the A's this year, certainly acquitted himself well. He pitched eight innings, struck out five and gave up nine hits, the damage coming on solo home runs from Adam Melhuse, Eric Byrnes and Jermaine Dye.

But Colon's outing, while good enough to win on most nights, paled next to Hudson's seven-strikeout, no-walk gem.

``It was a great duel,'' Colon said. ``I respect the fact that Tim Hudson is a No. 1 guy.''

He showed it. Hudson did not allow a runner to reach third base until the eighth inning, when David Eckstein's high chopper produced an infield single and a one-out, bases-loaded situation.

Ricardo Rincon came on to strike out Darin Erstad, and Jim Mecir was summoned to face Vladimir Guerrero, who worked a full count. With the sellout crowd roaring in anticipation, Guerrero flailed at a screwball to end the threat.

``That lineup's as tough as it gets,'' Hudson said of the Angels, who scored at least five runs in seven of their first 10 games. ``It's not easy, but it's the big leagues. Jim made some really good pitches against one of the toughest hitters around.''

But that was all the help Hudson needed.

He was perfect through three innings, then gave up a one-out single in the fourth to Erstad, bringing up Guerrero and Garret Anderson, the heart of the Angels lineup.

Both struck out swinging.

In the fifth, nursing a 1-0 lead, Hudson yielded a one-out double to Jose Guillen. He then needed just three pitches to strike out Tim Salmon, the final pitch a particularly nasty split-fingered fastball.

``That was typical Hudson,'' Angels second baseman Adam Kennedy said. ``He knows each hitter and what they'll do in situations. It's not easy.''

In the seventh, Hudson struck out Troy Glaus and Guillen and looked poised to throw his seventh career shutout. But Salmon led off the eighth with a single and Jeff DaVanon slapped a one-out pinch-hit single to left, preceding Eckstein's bases-loading chopper.

Rincon and Mecir picked him up, though, and the A's (7-3) got a quick jump on the Angels (6-5) in what's expected to be a six-month battle royale.

Colon, who won his first two starts as an Angel, has a 5.32 career ERA against Oakland. The A's band of patient hitters coaxed 77 pitches out of him through five innings, but Colon won most of the battles.

Not three of them, though. Melhuse got a 95-mph heater over the heart of the plate and stroked it over the fence in center field for his first hit this season and a 1-0 Oakland lead.

Byrnes and Dye made it 3-0 in the sixth. Byrnes exploited a hanging changeup and golfed it into the left-field seats, while Dye hit a mammoth shot over both bullpens for a 3-0 lead.

``I felt as good as I did in Texas,'' Colon said of his eight-inning, one-run effort Sunday.

Gabe Lacques, [phone]

gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

ECKSTEIN

Had 2 of Angels 6 hits

Box:

GAME RECAP