LACKEY IS ONE-DERFUL PITCHER LIMITS ATHLETICS TO A SINGLE HIT IN VICTORY ANGELS 3, OAKLAND 0.

Byline: DOUG PADILLA  Staff Writer

OAKLAND -- This was John Lackey's Game 7 all over again, an outing when the right-hander was so locked into the moment that he would not be denied.

The Oakland Athletics are not among Lackey's favorite people these days, and a May 2 game in Anaheim is the reason why. Revenge was the order of the day and Lackey served it with blazing fastballs and biting curves.

Lackey gave up a leadoff double to Oakland's Mark Kotsay to start the game and then nothing else. The A's sent 27 more batters to the plate and 27 walked back to the dugout. The Angels won 3-0, beating Oakland's Barry Zito in a mere two hours, one minute.

The one-hitter was the 21st in club history and the 16th complete-game one-hitter in the team's existence. The last came May 26, 1989, when Chuck Finley blanked the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

``It felt good,'' was Lackey's understated assessment.

Said teammate Hector Carrasco, standing nearby: ``Huh. Believe it.''

Lackey gave it another try.

``Any time you go against a team you're chasing and you're facing a good pitcher, you know you want to pitch well,'' said Lackey, who said Friday still did not compare to being the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series.

Lackey's anger with the A's had been brewing for two months and started coming to the surface in the days before Friday's outing.

On May 2, Oakland's Jason Kendall charged Lackey on the mound, but that wasn't why the right-hander was so hot under the collar. The A's won that game in a runaway, but that wasn't the reason for Lackey's fire.

With one out to go in that May 2 game, after Kendall started a fight and the A's had a victory in their back pocket, Oakland reliever Chad Gaudin hit Robb Quinlan with a pitch. Because of it, Lackey's face was as red with anger as his baseball cap.

Friday was Lackey's first chance to vent directly at the team that brought his blood to a boil in the first place. He hinted at his displeasure in a brief interview Thursday.

It was the first time a pitcher had allowed a hit to the first batter and then retired the next 27 since Jerry Reuss did it for the Dodgers June 11, 1982, against the Cincinnati Reds.

``John was as locked in as we've seen him,'' manager Mike Scioscia said. Lackey threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of the last 23 batters he faced.

``He always has that (intensity) going out to pitch but I can tell he was a little pumped up especially from the first inning,'' catcher Mike Napoli said.

When the first one-hitter of Lackey's career was made official, after Juan Rivera tracked down Mark Kotsay's foul popup for the last out, the right-hander pumped his fist slowly near his chest. Napoli gave him a hug and teammates spilled form the dugout just a stride slower than that would have had it been a no-hitter.

For now anyway, Lackey isn't thinking about a perfect game that nearly was.

``It doesn't feel like I just missed,'' he said. ``I was in the stretch trying to get out of a jam right out of the gate. No, it doesn't feel like I just missed. I pitched well.''

And how fitting it was that Quinlan was the Angels player to supply the winning runs. Quinlan hit a two-run home run off Zito in the second inning. Chone Figgins added a solo home run in the fifth inning.

Scioscia had a feeling Quinlan was poised to deliver. He had Quinlan starting at third base and batting in the No. 5 spot for just the third time this season.

Scioscia's hunch was so strong that Quinlan was batting ahead of Juan Rivera, who had two multi-home-run games in the previous three days.

[e-mail]

[phone], Ext. 2731

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

Right-hander John Lackey retired 27 straight batters after giving up a leadoff double Friday.

Benjamin Sklar/Associated Press

Box:

ANGELS at OAKLAND

- Doug Padilla