ISHII'S EASY FOR ANGELS ORTIZ, ANAHEIM TAKE FIRST GAME ANGELS 8, DODGERS 4.

Byline: Jill Painter Staff Writer

Kazuhisa Ishii began his start like he always does - he had little control and always was flirting with disaster.

It's never really been a problem. Not when you have 10 wins and an ERA of just more than 1.00 after three innings. But this time, Ishii never shed his early blemishes.

The Angels, taking the early lead in California's interleague freeway series, rode pitcher Ramon Ortiz's complete game to beat the Dodgers 8-4 in front of 51,722 on Friday at Dodger Stadium.

Ortiz was dominant, with the exception of the four hits he allowed - all homers. Eric Karros, Alex Cora and Shawn Green hit solo home runs off Ortiz, Green slugging his 17th and 18th of the season.

The teams are separated by 30 miles. They each entered Friday's game just a game back in their respective divisions. But they seemed worlds apart - in both pitching and offense - on Friday.

Ishii (10-2) scattered seven hits and allowed six runs - five earned - in three-plus innings. He walked four and struck out three, threw two wild pitches and hit a batter. He pitched to three batters in the fourth before Dodgers manager Jim Tracy had seen enough.

Typical Ishii start. Hardly the typical happy ending. He now has a 3.61 ERA.

Ortiz leads the majors in home runs allowed with 22, but 18 of those were solo shots. After he walked Adrian Beltre in the second inning with two outs, he retired the next 10 batters before Green hit his first home run.

Karros hit a solo home run to left field - his sixth of the season - in the second inning to amke it 1-0 Dodgers. Green homered to left field on a 3-1 pitch in the sixth and hit Ortiz's first pitch over the left-field fence in the ninth.

It was Green's fourth multihomer game this season and 20th in his career. The last before Friday was his four-homer game at Milwaukee on May 25.

Ortiz (7-5) struck out eight and walked one in nine innings.

The Angels scored three runs in Ishii's wild third inning and three more in the fourth. Darin Erstad singled to lead off the third and Ishii hit Troy Glaus. Erstad then scored on a wild pitch and Garret Anderson reached on a fielder's choice.

Ishii fielded Anderson's ball, but his throw to second base bounced in front of the bag and everyone was safe. Tim Salmon then singled up the middle to score a pair of runs.

In the fourth, it was more of the same. Ishii walked leadoff batter David Eckstein and his troubles mounted. Eckstein later scored on a wild pitch as Ishii pitched to Glaus. After Glaus singled, Ishii was pulled.

Cora, pinch hitting for Guillermo Mota, hit his 10th career home run and second of the year, sending Ortiz's first pitch to right-center field. It was just the second hit Ortiz allowed to that point.

In the sixth inning, several players fell on one play. Salmon hit a popup and Paul Lo Duca caught it outside the first-base line for the out, but he and reliever Mota both fell. As Salmon was running to first base, he and Karros collided, and Karros stayed on the field for a while but was all right.

Cesar Izturis made a couple of nice defensive plays at shortstop, one of which was a diving grab to throw out Anderson in the eighth.

Erstad had a typical day with highlight catches in center field. He made a sliding catch of a Dave Roberts shot to deep center in the eighth inning, assuring Roberts (0 for 4) wouldn't get on base all game despite a .403 on-base percentage.

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Photo:

Dodgers pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii delivers during Friday night's game against the visiting Angels. He was knocked out early and took the loss.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press