What's that thing called again, where a team puts a few guys on base and brings them home? Oh yeah, a rally. It had been so long since the Angels had one, you almost forgot what they were like.
Tuesday night, the Angels, limited to two runs, four extra-base hits and a .153 average in their previous four games, provided a little refresher course.
Vladimir Guerrero chopped a run-scoring single through a drawn-in infield to tie the score in the eighth inning, and Garret Anderson, who hit .188 with one home run in June, crushed a two-out, two-run homer to lift the Angels to a 5-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
"I always feel confident in my ability to hit," said Anderson, who drove Alan Embree's 3-and-1 inside fastball over the right-field wall. "I just keep plugging away. I don't panic. I know things will turn. I'm not going to hit five home runs in one at-bat. You have to keep chipping away, a little at a time."
The A's broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the eighth when Mark Ellis hit a solo home run against reliever Scot Shields.
But first baseman Casey Kotchman, who saved a run with a diving stop of Daric Barton's grounder with a runner on second to end the sixth, led off the bottom of the eighth with a double to right against Embree.
Maicer Izturis' sacrifice bunt moved pinch-runner Reggie Willits to third, and Guerrero, after fouling off four pitches, capped an eight-pitch at-bat with a run-scoring single to left to make it 3-3.
Torii Hunter struck out, but Anderson, who was given the previous two games off so he could, in the words of Manager Mike Scioscia, "let a little air out, regroup," hit the go-ahead home run.
Closer Francisco Rodriguez retired the side in order in the ninth for his major league-leading 33rd save, and the Angels pushed their American League West lead over the A's to 4 1/2 games.
"The whole night we had good at-bats," Scioscia said. "Kotch led off the eighth with a big double, Izzy got the bunt down, and Vlad fouled off some tough pitches before getting one through."
One night after hacking at so many first pitches that A's left-hander Greg Smith needed only 101 pitches to throw a complete game, the Angels actually made Rich Harden work, pushing the Oakland right-hander's pitch count to 91 in five innings.
They scored only twice against Harden, rallying in the third when Gary Matthews Jr. was hit by a pitch, Howie Kendrick doubled, Jeff Mathis hit a sacrifice fly and Kotchman a run-scoring groundout, but they knocked the ace out after five.
