Ranger Bats Leave Angels Dizzy

Vladimir Guerrero can still claim partial ownership of the Texas Rangers -- the Angel right fielder singled in the fourth inning Wednesday night and has now hit safely in all 39 games against Texas, the longest streak by a player against one team since divisional play began in 1969.

But the Angels’ short-term lease on the Rangers finally expired.

Texas took advantage of a rare Orlando Cabrera error and a wobbly performance by pitcher Kelvim Escobar to score five runs in the fourth inning -- four unearned -- en route to an 11-3 victory in Angel Stadium.

Rookie left-hander John Koronka limited the Angels to two runs and six hits in six innings, and Gary Matthews Jr., activated off the disabled list Wednesday, highlighted the fourth with a bases-loaded triple, as the Rangers ended an eight-game losing streak to the Angels and a nine-game streak in Angel Stadium.

Compounding the loss for the Angels, who have now gone five games without hitting a home run: Guerrero, their top power threat, left the game after the fifth inning because of stomach flu, not the best news for a team that will embark today on a 10-game trip.

“He’ll be fine,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of Guerrero, who has a .451 average, 13 homers and 30 runs batted in against the Rangers. “He just got a little dizzy out there, and once he got dizzy, that was it. There was no way he could have done what he needs to do.”

There was some question whether Escobar would be able to do what he needed to do because the right-hander was recovering from a split nail on the middle finger of his pitching hand, an injury suffered Friday against the Yankees.

But the nail, Escobar said, “wasn’t an issue at all. I didn’t even feel it.” What he did feel was a positive vibe that he wasn’t able to channel into his pitches.

“They swing the bats well, and you have to locate your pitches and mix them up,” Escobar said. “They made me work pretty hard. But I felt great. Wow, you have to take advantage on those nights you feel that way.”

Escobar was hit hard in the fourth, giving up five hits, including Mark Teixeira’s leadoff homer that gave Texas a 2-1 lead. But Escobar’s earned-run average didn’t take such a beating; only one of the runs was earned.

With one out and the bases empty, the Angels employed an infield shift against left-handed hitting Hank Blalock, with Cabrera deep and shaded to the second-base side of the bag.

Blalock hit a chopper to the shortstop side of second base, and Cabrera, not used to going to his right for a grounder up the middle, overran the ball by a step. Cabrera tried to snag the ball on his left side, but the ball skipped under his glove for an error, his third in nine games this season after committing seven errors in all of 2005.

After D’Angelo Jimenez walked and Brad Wilkerson singled to right to load the bases, Gerald Laird’s chopper caromed high off the plate for an infield single and a 3-1 lead.

Laynce Nix struck out looking, which would have ended the inning had Cabrera made the play on Blalock’s grounder, but Matthews lined a three-run triple into the gap in left-center for a 6-1 lead.

The Angels, who scored four runs in the final two innings of Tuesday night’s 5-4 victory, loaded the bases with no out in the fourth, but the rally fizzled when Robb Quinlan hit a sacrifice fly to right, Jeff Mathis popped to second and Adam Kennedy grounded out to third.

The Rangers tacked on two more runs in the top of the fifth, on Blalock’s RBI grounder and Jimenez’s RBI single, and that was it for Escobar, who was pulled in favor of Hector Carrasco.

Laird, a former Westminster La Quinta High star, had a home run, two singles and scored three runs.