Orioles get to Ervin Santana in his return

The Angels scored two more in the sixth inning when Morales slugged his 14th home run of the year after Vladimir Guerrero had singled.

Baltimore reliever Jim Johnson also played a key role in protecting the Orioles' lead, despite being wild.

After Bobby Abreu walked to open the eighth inning, Torii Hunter hit a high grounder that Johnson flagged and then, while falling down, threw to second to force out Abreu. Otherwise, the Angels would have had runners at first and second with no one out.

Johnson then threw consecutive wild pitches to Vladimir Guerrero that enabled Hunter to reach third, and Hunter then scored when Guerrero grounded out. Even so, the Angels were still two runs short.

Santana's outing -- which lifted his earned-run average to 7.43 -- undoubtedly will fuel speculation that the Angels might step up their effort to trade for a starting pitcher.

But the Angels hope Santana -- who missed the first six weeks of the season because his injury -- starts to regain the form that earned him a spot on the 2008 All-Star team.

In the meantime, "I feel comfortable throwing every pitch no matter what situation or what count," Santana said after the game. "The ball is coming out good. Location was OK; a few mistakes."

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james.peltz@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Struggling starter

Ervin Santana's last

two starts:

*--* Opp. IP H ER BB K TB 4.2 8 6 2 3 BAL 5 8 4 3 5 *--*