Angels Proving They Aren’t History in West

The Angels’ start this season was the worst in franchise history.

On April 23, they were 6-14 and many baseball observers wondered if they had blown any chance to contend in the American League West with the defending champion Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics.

But after defeating the Detroit Tigers, 7-6, on Thursday night before 15,003 at Edison Field, the Angels moved over .500 for the first time in a month and into second place in the AL West, a half-game ahead of the A’s.

The Angels, who trail the Mariners by 61/2 games, have won 11 of 13.

“Our goal is to be in first but it’s definitely a good step from where we were two weeks ago,” Angel shortstop David Eckstein said. “If we just keep building on that, we’ll be happy where we’re at.”

The Angels won despite another less-than-stellar outing by Aaron Sele, who spotted the Tigers a 4-0 lead after four innings.

Sele (3-2) won his third consecutive decision despite giving up nine hits for the third straight outing. Sele, coming off consecutive wins over the Toronto Blue Jays, gave up four runs and hit two batters in six innings against the Tigers.

He gave up runs on a sacrifice fly by Randall Simon and a single by Shane Halter in the first inning, a double by Damian Jackson in the second and single by Jacob Cruz in the fourth.

“Aaron battled,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He still hasn’t hit stride, what we’re looking for, but we know he’ll get there.”

“As long as we win, who cares?” said Sele, who has a 5.75 earned-run average. “It’s not the perfect blueprint but you just try to make quality pitches in tough situations. Tonight, they hit what I thought were really good pitches.”

Troy Glaus had a two-run double, Julio Ramirez had a two-run triple and Darin Erstad, Bengie Molina and Garret Anderson also drove in runs for the Angels.

Closer Troy Percival pitched the ninth and earned his fifth save, his second in as many nights.

Glaus, who hit a game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday night, delivered a two-run double in the fifth inning against Tiger starter Mark Redman (0-4) Thursday that gave the Angels a one-run lead after trailing, 4-0.

He also started double plays in the fourth and fifth innings when the Tigers had a chance to turn the game into a rout.

In the fourth, Wendell Magee led off with a single and moved to third on Craig Paquette’s double down the left-field line. Cruz singled up the middle to put the Tigers ahead, 4-0.

Brandon Inge, the Tigers’ catcher and No. 9 hitter, then hit a ground ball to Glaus’ left. Glaus extended his left arm to field the ball, then fired a bullet to second baseman Jose Nieves, who threw to Scott Spiezio at first to complete a double play.

Sele then got Jackson to pop out to Glaus.

The Angels pulled to within 4-3 in the home half of the inning when Molina drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to right and Ramirez followed with his two-run triple off the right-field wall.

Glaus kept the Angels within a run with another solid defensive play in the fifth.

Robert Fick led off with a single and moved to second one out later when Sele hit Simon with a pitch. Glaus thwarted a potential big inning, however, when he fielded Halter’s ground ball, stepped on third and threw to Spiezio for an inning-ending double play.

That set the stage for the Angel fifth.

Eckstein started the rally with a one-out walk, and Erstad advanced him to third with a single to right. Glaus, who had hit fly balls to right field in his first two at-bats, hit a shot along the third-base line that got past Paquette and scored both runners to put the Angels ahead, 5-4. Glaus moved to third base when the throw to the plate got past Inge, and he scored when Anderson followed with a deep fly ball to center field.

The Angels added another run in the seventh when Nieves led off with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a bunt single by Eckstein before scoring on Erstad’s sacrifice fly to center field.

The Angels needed the cushion when the Tigers scored twice in the eighth.