FIGGINS, ANGELS FEEL GOOD OUTFIELDER HAS KEY HIT, L.A. WINS 5TH STRAIGHT ANGELS 8, BALTIMORE 4.

Byline: BEN VILLA Staff Writer

ANAHEIM -- With the Angels desperately needing to win to stay within striking distance of the Oakland Athletics, manager Mike Scioscia can't worry about hurting anybody's feelings this time of the year.

But it was one player who had the biggest reason to be upset Wednesday who wound up feeling the best.

After being demoted from the leadoff spot to the No. 9 spot in the lineup, Chone Figgins responded by doubling home the winning run as the Angels won their fifth game in a row, an 8-4 victory over Baltimore in front of 33,736 at Angel Stadium.

Howie Kendrick added his third home run of the season for the Angels, who kept pace with the American League West-leading A's after Oakland defeated the Rangers on Wednesday.

The Angels trail by 5 1/2 games with 22 remaining.

The Angels have today off before hosting Toronto, which come into Anaheim for a three-game series.

``It was great to get eight runs on the board today, and it was a day that we needed all of them,'' Scioscia said. ``Offensively, we kept pressuring them and we had great situational hitting, which is so important to this team.''

The game was a back-and-forth affair through the first six innings, with each team taking the lead, only to see the other rally.

Brian Roberts led off the game for the Orioles by hitting the first pitch he saw from Ervin Santana for a home run over the short fence in right field, but the Angels tied the score in the second on a solo shot by Kendrick.

The Orioles retook the lead in the third, but the Angels rallied again and took a 3-2 lead in their half of the third on an RBI groundout by Vladimir Guerrero and an infield single by Kendrick that scored Orlando Cabrera.

With the score tied 4-4 in the sixth inning, the Angels rallied to take the lead for good. Mike Napoli led off with a double off Orioles reliever Chris Britton and scored when Figgins, who entered Wednesday stuck in a 4-for-42 slump, finally got a break when he doubled down the right-field line to give the Angels a 5-4 lead.

``It felt good to get that double, especially because in my previous at-bat, I lined out to first base,'' Figgins said. ``After that, I just said to myself, `I have to try and get a hit any way I can.'

``It was good to find some holes today, and I've got to stick with things until some hits start falling in for me. But it doesn't matter where I hit in the lineup. Winning is the only thing that matters.''

The hit by Figgins made a winner out of Santana, who didn't pitch great but lasted long enough to earn his 14th victory of the season.

Santana allowed three home runs -- all of them solo shots -- in seven innings. He allowed four runs while striking out four and walking one.

``Giving up home runs are OK, as long there's nobody on base,'' Santana said. ``They're going to happen, and I'm lucky that today I got a lot of offensive support. When we got men on base, we got them in, and that's our style of baseball.''

Said Kennedy: ``This was a nice series for us. Putting streaks together like this is necessary, and we now know it's in us. But we can't look past the next couple of teams that come in here. If we do, it'll be foolish. We need to keep playing well and keep this momentum alive.''

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The Angels' Maicer Izturis hits an RBI triple in the eighth inning of Wednesday's game.

Chris Carlson/Associated Press