Angels Get Last Laugh Again

CLEVELAND — Confidence breeds laughter, and Jarrod Washburn laughed in the face of his manager Wednesday. With the Angels leading comfortably, eight outs away from another victory, Mike Scioscia headed to the mound to check on his starting pitcher. The television audience could see Washburn cracking up.

“I just threw a strike,” Washburn said later. “What more does he want?”

Over the past couple of weeks, Washburn has been nagged by occasional tightness in his left arm, and Scioscia wanted to check whether the condition had flared anew. It hadn’t, and Washburn insists he is fine. So are the Angels, who extended their winning streak to six with a 7-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

Brad Fullmer, starting to put the “hitter” into designated hitter, doubled and tripled to spark an Angel offense that produced 11 hits Wednesday and has outscored opponents, 61-19, during the winning streak. The Angels converted three Cleveland errors into three unearned runs, as the formerly mighty Indians lost for the 13th time in 15 games before 23,536, the smallest crowd in Jacobs Field history.

The Angels extend no sympathy to the Indians. The Angels had their own litany of problems not so long ago, but they appear to have resolved them in concert, in the process hacking their deficit in the American League West from 101/2 to 51/2 games in a week.

The hitters are hitting. Fullmer, Darin Erstad and Adam Kennedy, all of whom started play with a batting average below .250, each had two hits. But, more importantly to the Angels, the pitchers are pitching in, with a 2.29 earned-run average during the winning streak.

The Angels built their team upon a foundation of starting pitching. In six of the past seven games, the starter has pitched into the seventh inning; in the other, Aaron Sele pitched into the sixth.

“What I like happening is what’s on the pitcher’s mound,” Scioscia said. “That’s where it begins for our club.”

Said Washburn: “We are definitely starting to pitch the way we’re supposed to.”

Washburn was not overpowering, but he more than earned his keep in the fifth inning. With the Angels leading, 4-1, the Indians loaded the bases with none out. They scored once, as he retired the next three hitters--Omar Vizquel on a sacrifice fly, Travis Fryman on a pop fly and Jim Thome on a strikeout.

Washburn completed the seventh inning for the first time in six starts this season, retiring the final nine batters he faced. He won his third consecutive start, giving up five hits over seven innings.

Fullmer did not hit a home run in April, the first time in his career that an entire month passed without him hitting one. But the power is starting to show up, with four extra-base hits in his past four games. The batting average is up too, from .183 to .225 in a week.

“I’ve hit some balls hard the past few games,” Fullmer said. “It doesn’t mean I’m where I want to be, but it’s a step in the right direction.

“Home runs are the furthest thing from my mind. Worrying about home runs will prolong problems at the plate. That I know for sure. If I hit the ball hard, that will take care of itself. I need to make sure that’s not on my mind.”

Not that anyone was overly worried about statistics. Scioscia spent Wednesday afternoon checking out the Jimi Hendrix exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Washburn scurried back to the hotel after the game to place an early morning wake-up call for Ramon Ortiz. Turns out that Ortiz had promised Washburn that, if he won Wednesday, Ortiz would join him on a fishing trip this morning.

In a winning streak, life is good indeed.

“I’ll be interested to see how well he handles the fly rod,” Washburn said with a smile.