Guerrero finds his stroke, but A’s rally off Shields

OAKLAND -- The Oakland Athletics interrupt this unscheduled Vladimir Guerrero home run derby to deliver the following message: They still own the Angels.

Long out of the race in the American League West, the Athletics continued to wreak havoc with the division leaders Friday night at McAfee Coliseum despite another power display by Guerrero.

The slugger hit two homers for the second consecutive game and Oakland merely shrugged, battering reliever Scot Shields for five eighth-inning runs en route to an 8-4 victory that marked their seventh win in 11 meetings with the Angels this season.

“I didn’t do my job and our team paid for it,” Shields said. “The point is, we lost a game we should have won.”

Twenty-five days after winning the Home Run Derby at AT&T; Park, Guerrero continued to launch balls across the Bay, becoming the first Angel to hit two homers in consecutive games since Jeff DaVanon did it in three consecutive games in June 2003.

After enduring a career-long drought of 125 at-bats without a homer, Guerrero splurged for four homers in eight at-bats over two games, including a two-run blast in the sixth inning Friday that pulled the Angels into a 3-3 tie and a solo shot in the eighth that provided a 4-3 lead.

“He came out of it in a big way, and unfortunately we couldn’t take advantage of it,” said Angels Manager Mike Scioscia, whose team’s division lead was sliced to 2 1/2 games over Seattle. “When he gets locked in, he’s capable of doing the things were seeing.”

It was the second time in his career that Guerrero has hit two homers in consecutive games. He also accomplished the feat Sept. 17-18, 2000, against the New York Mets and Florida Marlins.

The fireworks were rendered moot in the eighth when Shields endured one of the worst outings of his career, giving up four hits and five runs in two-thirds of an inning. All of the runs scored with two out.

The trouble started when Mike Piazza singled with one out on a slow roller to third baseman Matt Brown. Marco Scutaro followed with a two-out single to right that allowed pinch-runner J.J. Furmaniak to take third and then score when right fielder Guerrero’s throw back into the infield skipped past first baseman Robb Quinlan toward the third-base line and was finally fielded by a visibly agitated Shields.

“It just skipped and hit off my glove,” said Quinlan, who was still in the game because Scioscia wanted to save left-handed Casey Kotchman for pinch-hitting duties. “It’s not a good feeling.”

Dan Johnson then gave the Athletics a 5-4 lead with a double to left-center field. Shields put himself in a further bind by hitting Kurt Suzuki with a pitch on his hand and then surrendering Donnie Murphy’s RBI single to left.

Scioscia, finally having seen enough, pulled Shields in favor of Greg Jones, who promptly yielded Travis Buck’s two-run double to left-center that set the final margin.

Guerrero’s third homer in two games had capped the Angels’ comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the sixth. Reggie Willits hit a one-out single past first baseman Johnson and went to third on Chone Figgins’ single to right before scoring on Orlando Cabrera’s sacrifice fly.

Guerrero followed with his 17th homer, a two-run shot to right on a 3-and-1 pitch from Oakland starter Lenny DiNardo. He hit his 18th homer in the eighth off reliever Santiago Casilla and has six homers in eight games against the Athletics, his most against any team this season.

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ben.bolch@latimes.com