HOW THE AL WEST WAS ONE ANGELS CLOSE IN ON TITLE WITH WIN ANGELS 4, OAKLAND 3.Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer OAKLAND - The Angels' one-game-at-a-time approach has taken them here, where it's now one-win-and-they're-in. One more victory over the Oakland A's - either tonight, Wednesday or Thursday - will clinch the Angels' second consecutive American League West The American League West is one of three divisions in Major League Baseball's American League. The division currently has four teams, but it has had as many as seven teams before the 1994 realignment. title, thanks to a 4-3 victory Monday night in front of a subdued crowd of 19,347 at McAfee Coliseum For other uses, see Coliseum. • • . Angels starter John Lackey John Derran Lackey (born October 23, 1978, in Abilene, Texas) is a major league baseball starting pitcher from Abilene, Texas. He has played for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim his entire career. (13-5) effectively mixed in a knee-buckling curveball with his fastball and changeup to keep the A's hitters off-balance and help increase the Angels' division lead to five games with six to play. The Angels' lead had not been as large as five games since July 26. Steve Finley Steven Allen Finley (born March 12 1965, in Union City, Tennessee) is a Major League Baseball center fielder who bats and throws left-handed. He currently is a free agent, and has been working out on a regular basis since his release, hopeful a call will come from a team looking had the big blow, a two-run home run off A's starter Joe Blanton Joseph Matthew Blanton (born December 11, 1980 in Nashville, Tennessee) is a starting pitcher for the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball. College Career He graduated from Franklin-Simpson High School (Kentucky) in 1999. (11-12) in the fourth inning, his 12th of the season and second in his past two starts. His three-run homer Saturday sparked the Angels in a 7-3 victory over the Devil Rays. Lackey gave up two runs and four hits while striking out seven in six innings, giving way to the bullpen after making 103 pitches. Kelvim Escobar Kelvim Jose Escobar Bolivar [ess-coe-BAR] (born April 11, 1976 in La Guaira, Venezuela) is a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who currently plays for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2004-present). He bats and throws right handed. pitched the seventh and eighth innings, allowing a solo homer Noun 1. solo homer - a home run with no runners on base solo blast home run, homer - a base hit on which the batter scores a run by Eric Chavez Eric Cesar Chavez (pronounced CHA-vez) (born December 7, 1977 in Los Angeles, California) is a Mexican-American third baseman in Major League Baseball who has played for the Oakland Athletics since 1998. in the eighth to make it close. Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez pitched a scoreless ninth for his 42nd save, tying Troy Percival for the second most in a single season in Angels history. It was his first appearance here since he dropped the throw back from catcher Jose Molina in the bottom of the ninth, allowing the A's to score the winning run on Aug. 11. The victory was the Angels' 90th of the season, marking only the second time in club history they've had consecutive 90-win seasons (1985-86). Angels owner Arte Moreno is scheduled to arrive here today and take part in any clubhouse celebration that could happen any day now. Lackey took a 4-0 lead and no-hitter into the fifth inning, but that doesn't mean he didn't have his moments. After getting the first two batters in the third inning, Lackey walked both Nick Swisher and Mark Ellis before hitting Jason Kendall with a pitch to load the bases. Lackey responded by striking out Mark Kotsay on three consecutive breaking pitches, strike-three coming on a ball in the dirt on which Kotsay couldn't check his swing. Jay Payton hit Lackey's first pitch of the fifth inning for a single to break up the no-hit bid, but Lackey retired the next two hitters. Ellis followed with a single to center before Kendall doubled to center, scoring both Payton and Ellis to cut the Angels' lead to 4-2. The Angels took the lead against Blanton in the second inning on two unearned runs, thanks to A's shortstop Bobby Crosby's throwing error after fielding Vladimir Guerrero's groundball. Darin Erstad immediately cashed in on the error with an RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in double to right field, and - two outs later - Juan Rivera made it 2-0 with an RBI single. The Angels increased their lead to 4-0 in the fourth on Finley's home run, driving in Bengie Molina - who had singled - ahead of him. That was the extent of the Angels offense, which disappeared after the fourth inning. Following Finley's homer, Blanton retired 13 of the next 14 Angels hitters to finish the eighth. Joe Haakenson, (626) 962-8811 joe.haakenson(at)sgvn.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos, 6 boxes Photo: (1 -- color) The Angels' Steve Finley is congratulated by teammates after hitting a two-run home run in the third inning Monday. (2) Orlando Cabrera, right, celebrates with Bengie Molina after the Angels beat Oakland. The Angels need one more win to clinch the AL West title. Ben Margot/Associated Press Box: (1) ANGELS at OAKLAND - Joe Haakenson (2) GAME RECAP (3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED (4) ALMANAC almanac, originally, a calendar with notations of astronomical and other data. Almanacs have been known in simple form almost since the invention of writing, for they served to record religious feasts, seasonal changes, and the like. (5) AL WEST (6) AL WILD CARD |
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