trek On the road until the end of July, the LA Angels of Anaheim can ill-afford to lose their focus now as they continue to chase the streaking Texas Rangers in the American League West. Luckily for the Angels, the first stop on their lengthy 10-game trek has them stopping in at Camden Yards where they are clashing with the Baltimore Orioles in a three-game set over the weekend.
On Friday, the Angels, who are just three games out of first in their division, took some time to warm up but finally delivered a 6-1 win in the series opener after scoring all of their runs from the seventh inning on.
In the first meeting of the season between the squads, the Angels, winners of three in a row now, leaned on starting pitcher Ervin Santana who gave up just one run on three hits over 7 2/3 innings of action. Santana, who took a no- hitter into the sixth inning, struck out one and walked one to remain unbeaten over his last five starts. Hisanori Takahashi stepped in for the final two frames to earn his first save of 2011.
On the offensive side, Vernon Wells crushed a grand slam in the ninth to break the game open, while Maicer Izturis and Torii Hunter chipped in with seventh- inning RBI doubles for the Angels as well.
"Every game we need, that's what is fun about being over here, is playing meaningful baseball after the All-Star break," Wells said of his time spent with the Angels. "I don't think I've had a chance to do that so this will be a fun run."
J.J. Hardy plated the lone run with an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth and Blake Davis added a double for the Orioles, who have now lost two straight and three of the last four.
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