Hentgen Impressive Enough to Rangers

Barring a miracle, Pat Hentgen won’t win 20 games again this season. But last year’s Cy Young Award winner looked as good as ever to Texas Manager Johnny Oates on Saturday.

“Give Hentgen credit,” Oates said after Hentgen yielded six hits in eight innings in Toronto’s 2-1 victory over the Rangers. “He may have struggled a bit with some of our hitters. But he didn’t win a Cy Young Award just by getting 22-year-olds out.”

Hentgen, who is 15-9 and is scheduled to make four more starts, didn’t have much luck with Lee Stevens or Juan Gonzalez. But he generally dominated the rest of the Rangers’ lineup.

“I just wasn’t very aggressive with those two,” Hentgen said. “I hung a couple of breaking balls, one on the homer to Gonzalez and one on the double to Stevens. I’m just lucky that second one didn’t leave the ballpark.”

Hentgen retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced and didn’t yield a hit until Gonzalez reached on a bloop double with two out in the fourth. Stevens followed with a walk, but Hentgen struck out Fernando Tatis to end the inning.

Tatis, who left six runners on base, came up with two out and the bases loaded in the sixth and grounded out to end the inning.

Hentgen struck out six and walked three.

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Next Series for Angels

Who: Toronto Blue Jays

Where: At Toronto

When: Monday, 4:30 p.m.; Tuesday, 4:30 p.m.