Angels starter Joe Saunders appreciated the effort. He suffered his second straight subpar start, allowing six runs -- five earned -- and seven hits, including two homers, in 5 1/3 innings but escaped with a no-decision.
"The hitters picked me up," Saunders said. "This one's on them. They did their job today, not me."
Saunders was glad to get out of Texas, where he was rocked for eight runs and six hits, including four home runs, in last Tuesday's 9-5 loss to the Rangers, which dropped him to 0-5 with an 11.68 career earned-run average at the Ballpark in Arlington.
But the left-hander didn't fare much better on the left coast, falling behind in counts and laboring throughout an afternoon in which he threw 111 pitches, only 60 for strikes.
He gave up a game-opening home run to Brian Roberts, a two-run double to Roberts in the third and a solo home run to Matt Wieters in the sixth.
But the Angels scored three in the third (Abreu two-run double, Hunter RBI double), two in the fifth on Guerrero's homer and tied the score on Erick Aybar's RBI double in the sixth.
"I'm proud of the boys," Saunders said. "They really picked me up."
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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com
