For Angels' John Lackey, it's another W against A's

But the Angels' right-hander reserves his harshest treatment of division foes for the Athletics, a team he has not merely owned but dominated, a run of supremacy that continued with Tuesday night's 5-1 victory over Oakland at Angel Stadium.

Lackey gave up seven hits, struck out five and walked none in his eighth career complete game, improving to 14-3 with a 2.67 earned-run average in 25 starts against the A's.

Of the 98 pitches Lackey threw, 73 were strikes. He threw first-pitch strikes to 23 of 32 batters and was so efficient with his two-seam fastballs and curve that he had only one three-ball count.

"I don't know man, I can't really explain it," Lackey (11-2) said of his success against the A's. "Most of the time they're big games, and it's fun to pitch in those games. That wasn't exactly the case tonight, but I enjoy pitching in those one-two matchups."

Oakland has sputtered with a 9-28 record since the All-Star break, and the injury-plagued A's are 20 1/2 games behind the first-place Angels, who reduced their magic number for clinching the division to 15.

But the A's have won three division titles and reached the AL Championship Series once during Lackey's Angels career, so it's not as if he has been fattening up on the dregs of the division.

"They've had clubs that make you get the ball over the plate and teams with a lot of power, and John's been in the league long enough where they've had a lot of turnover -- it's not like he's facing the same players year in and year out," Manager Mike Scioscia said. "I know the numbers are very good against those guys, but John's a good pitcher. He's having a good career."

Jack Cust's ninth-inning homer broke up Lackey's shutout, but the Angels had a commanding lead by then.

Chone Figgins sparked a four-run, third-inning outburst with a one-out walk, and Howie Kendrick, batting second in place of injured Erick Aybar, singled to center.

Mark Teixeira lined a hit-and-run single to left that scored Figgins and advanced Kendrick to third. Torii Hunter poked an RBI double to left, Juan Rivera hit a sacrifice fly to right, and Gary Matthews Jr. hit an RBI single to left. Mike Napoli's double and Kendrick's RBI single in the fourth made it 5-0.