Lackey Raises Profile, and Angels’ Spirits

The Angels gathered around the clubhouse televisions before batting practice Monday to watch an FSN profile of John Lackey, a lengthy piece featuring clips of Lackey playing football, basketball and baseball at Abilene (Texas) High and his former coaches waxing on about how great a prep athlete he was.

While his teammates chuckled as the gangly Lackey drove to the basket and tossed spirals -- and howled at the goofy still shots of the pitcher -- Lackey retreated to the trainer’s room.

“I was trying to avoid it,” he said. “I could hear the boys laughing. I’m sure I’ll get some comments. The boys will talk some trash.”

Such good-natured ribbing will be a lot easier to absorb after a gem such as Monday night’s, when Lackey limited a potent Texas Ranger lineup to two runs and four hits in seven innings of the Angels’ 5-2 victory in Angel Stadium.

Lackey, who gave up five runs in the second inning of a 10-8 loss to Seattle in his 2006 debut last Tuesday, struck out eight and walked one, and after Phil Nevin’s two-run home run in the first, the right-hander allowed three singles in the next six innings.

Scot Shields pitched a scoreless eighth, Francisco Rodriguez added a scoreless ninth for his fourth save and 22nd in a row dating to last season, and the Angels had five hits in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position and two outs in the first three innings.

They also mixed in some superb defense -- a nice play by shortstop Orlando Cabrera on Ian Kinsler’s fifth-inning grounder up the middle, first baseman Casey Kotchman’s diving stop of Hank Blalock’s smash in the seventh and left fielder Garret Anderson’s running, sliding catch of Brad Wilkerson’s bloop in the eighth.

“On the pitching side, it was beautiful, on the offensive side, we had some nice situational hitting, and we made some good plays on defense,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We played the type of game we have to.”

The Angels didn’t clobber the ball. In fact, they scored their runs on such an assortment of flares and ground-ball hits, it was if Texas starter Kameron Loe pushed the mute button on Angel bats. But what the Angels lacked in volume they made up for in timing and placement -- hardly a new phenomenon for them.

Though they ranked 10th in the American League in home runs, 10th in walks and ninth in on-base percentage last season, the Angels finished seventh in runs because they led the major leagues with a .296 average with runners in scoring percentage and a .279 mark with runners in scoring position and two outs.

Their clutch hitting erased a 2-0 deficit Monday night. Chone Figgins led off the first with a ground-ball single to center, took second on Cabrera’s dribbler in front of the plate and scored on Anderson’s two-out roller up the middle.

With Adam Kennedy at first and two outs in the second, Figgins lifted a fly ball to deep right, but Texas outfielder Kevin Mench drifted back on a bad route, and a ball that should have been caught dropped on the warning track for an RBI triple.

Cabrera flared an RBI single into center field for a 3-2 lead, and Vladimir Guerrero blooped an RBI single to right-center for a 4-2 lead, extending his hitting streak against Texas to 37 games. Darin Erstad led off the third with a single, stole second and scored on Kennedy’s two-out single to center for a 5-2 lead.

“It’s not a highlight statistic,” Anderson said of the averages with runners in scoring position. “The fans don’t really look at those numbers, but we have to bear down in those situations. We can’t wait for Vladdy to come up four times and hit home runs. It shouldn’t be like that on any team.”