CHICAGO -- John Lackey and the Los Angeles Angels of
Anaheim left the "Windy City" giving the Chicago White Sox
plenty to think about.
The Angels hit three homers in the first inning and got seven
stellar innings from Lackey en route to a 6-1 victory over the
White Sox to complete a three-game road sweep.
In a battle of American League division leaders, Anaheim beat
Chicago, 6-5, in 12 innings in the opener and pounded three
homers a 10-5 decision on Saturday. The Angels matched that in
the first Sunday with solo homers off White Sox starter Orlando
Hernandez (9-8).
"We go to Kansas City and we play good against them," said White
Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, whose team starts a six-game road
road trip on Tuesday with three games against the Royals and
Minnesota Twins. "We have to start playing better and forget
about what happened this weekend and just concentrate on the
next couple of weeks."
Chone Figgins led off the game with his eighth homer of the
season and Garret Anderson added his 222nd as an Angel, tying
him with Brian Downing for the second most in franchise history.
"That's my job to start the offense," Figgins said. "Normally I
just try to get on base, and I'm not used to hitting home runs
to start it off. Today though I did it for some reason."
Darin Erstad capped the homer barrage with his sixth to make it
3-0. It was the first time that Anaheim had connected three
times in an inning since May 24, 2004 at Toronto.
"We are a team not built around the home run," Anaheim manager
Mike Scioscia said. "We need to score other ways, when we do get
home runs it gives us a great boost. We got that today and it
was nice to see."
The home runs were all the support that Lackey (12-5) needed.
The righthander surrendered six hits and a walk with three
strikeouts as Anaheim moved two games ahead of Oakland in the AL
West. Oakland dropped a 7-4 decision to Texas.
"The biggest thing today was the guys giving me that early
cushion," Lackey said. "When we got out ahead I was able to use
a little more of the plate, and I was fortunate their guys hit
balls at people."
"John wasn't as sharp as we have seen him," Scioscia said. "He
threw a lot of pitches in the first five innings, but then he
settled down and got through six and seven. The White Sox made
him work for a lot of the outs."
Figgins added his 50th stolen base in the seventh, becoming the
first Angel since Luis Polonia in 1993 to accomplish the feat.
"I went around and thanked my teammates for taking pitches so I
could run," Figgins said. "The guys told me it had been a while
since someone on our team had done it, so it's a great feat to
be a part of. My teammates were the guys who really made it
possible."
Hernandez departed after two innings, yielding four runs and
five hits. The Cuban righthander has lost five of his last six
decisions.
"I just pitched bad today," Hernandez said. "My slider wasn't
working at all, but I didn't think I need to come out after two
innings, and I don't think I should lose my spot in the rotation
but that is the manager's decision."
Vladimir Guerrero added his 29th homer in the eighth for
Anaheim, which has won four straight and eight of 11 to make up
four games on Oakland.
"We are not looking at sweeps," Figgins said. "We are just
trying to win ballgames, we look at getting a "W" that night and
letting everything else take care of itself."
Juan Uribe homered in the ninth to avoid the shutout as Chicago
dropped to 12-20 against Anaheim, Oakland, Boston and the New
York Yankees this season.