SANTANA RAISES HIS MATURITY LEVEL GETS THROUGH ROUGH SPOTS IN ANGELS' WIN ANGELS 8, N.Y. YANKEES 6.

Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - Angels pitcher Ervin Santana has gone through growing pains in his rookie season, but it seems Saturday night Santana experienced a growth spurt.

Santana has been both spectacular and horrible since being called up from Double-A Arkansas to replace injured pitcher Kelvim Escobar in the starting rotation.

On Saturday, Santana found a middle ground, finding his way out of critical situations against baseball's toughest lineup as the Angels held on for an 8-6 victory over the New York Yankees in front of a sellout crowd of 44,035 at Angel Stadium.

It was the Angels' third consecutive win in the series, giving them a chance for a four-game sweep with a victory this afternoon.

Santana (5-4) gave up four runs (three earned) and six hits in five innings to earn a victory in consecutive starts for the first time in his major-league career.

And it wasn't lost on him that he did it against the most-feared lineup in baseball.

``I have to be consistent on every pitch because they're waiting for one mistake,'' Santana said. ``If I make a mistake, bam!

``Me and (catcher) Bengie (Molina) did a good job. Every pitch he called I have to throw. They are a very good team. A lot of superstars. It's not easy to pitch to those guys.''

The Angels bullpen saw its consecutive scoreless-innings streak snapped at 29 2/3 innings on a Jason Giambi home run in the seventh inning, but the Yankees were unable to get to Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez in the final two innings, Rodriguez earning his third save of the series.

Rodriguez retired Gary Sheffield, Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui in order to end it for his 24th save of the season.

The Angels offense pounded ex-Dodgers pitcher Kevin Brown (4-7) for six runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings, including a three-run homer by Vladimir Guerrero.

Guerrero has only two hits in the series, but both are home runs, the other a grand slam in the series opener on Thursday. He swung so hard on his home run Saturday, his belt came undone.

``He's swinging the bat better, you can see it,'' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ``He hit three or four bullets tonight. He's feeling much better now.''

The Angels had 11 hits in all, including three by Darin Erstad and two each by Chone Figgins and Steve Finley.

``That's how we have to play,'' Erstad said. ``We're not going to sit back and bomb home runs. We play situational baseball.''

The only question was whether that was enough offense with Santana on the mound.

Twice Santana found himself in deep trouble only to work his way out of it and escape with minimal damage. In the third inning, he gave up back-to-back homers to Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano, and an infield single to Sheffield.

But Santana responded by getting Rodriguez, Matsui and Giambi in order to end the inning.

In the fifth, Jeter singled, Cano walked and Sheffield singled home Jeter. But Santana was up to the challenge again, striking out Rodriguez, getting Matsui on a forceout and Giambi on a flyout.

``He's getting there,'' Scioscia said of Santana.

``He didn't get taken out of his game, he stayed with his game plan. That's the first step. The next step is pitching deeper into the game than five innings. Consistency will come with experience.''

The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Rodriguez's RBI single, but the Angels tied it in the second when Garret Anderson doubled and later scored on Bengie Molina's groundout.

Joe Haakenson, [phone]

joe.haakenson(at)sgvn.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, 2 boxes

Photo:

Vladimir Guerrero reacts after giving the Angels a 4-3 lead with a three-run home run off New York's Kevin Brown in the third inning.

Chris Carlson/Associated Press

Box:

(1) ANGELS vs. N.Y. YANKEES

- Joe Haakenson

(2) ALMANAC