Ervin Santana allowed three hits in seven innings and Chone Figgins hit his first inside-the-park home run to lead the Los Angeles Angels over the Oakland Athletics 6-0 Friday night.
Santana (16-8) struck out two and walked three. It's the first time the right-hander has won consecutive outings since July 15, when he won his seventh straight decision in a span of eight starts _ including the last three.
The Angels, who were eliminated from the playoff picture Tuesday when the Athletics dethroned them as AL West champs, have taken the first two of this season-ending four-game set and moved a season-best 16 games over .500.
They did it by with back-to-back shutouts against Barry Zito and Esteban Loaiza, who were named Friday by manager Ken Macha as his starters for the first two games of Oakland's first-round series against either Minnesota or Detroit.
Brendan Donnelly pitched the eighth and J.C. Romero worked the ninth to finish off the three-hitter.
Pitching his first full season in the majors, Santana finished with 141 strikeouts in 204 innings and a 4.28 ERA. He was the winningest pitcher on a staff that was without Cy Young Award-winning right-hander Bartolo Colon for most of the season.
Loaiza (11-9) allowed four runs, three earned, and six hits over four innings. He finished the regular season with a 4.89 ERA, after going 7-1 over his previous 10 starts. The right-hander is 0-4 with an 8.49 ERA in his last seven starts against the Angels, who haven't lost to him since Aug. 20, 2003.
Figgins doubled in a run in the second and Jeff Mathis added a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. Tim Salmon had an RBI single, Garret Anderson a sacrifice fly and Adam Kennedy a run-scoring single as the Angels jumped out to a 5-0 lead after five innings.
Figgins added his ninth homer of the season in the eighth against Kiko Calero.
Angels right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, who got his 200th hit Thursday night, sat out the game because of a sore heel and aching knees. He won't play in the final two games either. He is hitting .329 with 33 homers and 116 RBIs, topping last season's totals in all three categories.
Filling in for Guerrero was rookie Tommy Murphy, who started in right field for the first time in his big league career.
Notes: Oakland manager Ken Macha turned 56 years old Friday. He was reminded of the first birthday he celebrated after joining the Angels coaching staff in 1992, when he returned to the clubhouse and saw a large birthday cake sitting on a table. He was elated _ until he was told it was for then-owner Gene Autry. Friday would have been the Singing Cowboy's 99th birthday. ... Angels 1B Darin Erstad will meet with Dr. Philip Kwong on Sunday to decide on a date to have surgery on the troublesome right ankle that limited him to 40 games and 95 at-bats this season. ... Oakland was shut out in consecutive games for the first time since June 19-20 at Colorado. ... Jay Payton grounded into a double play in the fourth. It was the major league-leading 164th this season by the Athletics, breaking the Oakland record set in 1989. ... The A's came in batting a collective .170 against the Angels. Their lowest batting average against one team in a season was .191, against Baltimore in 1997.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
