Angels double up Dodgers, 4-2
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Left-hander Joe Saunders held the Dodgers hitless through the first three innings of his five-inning outing Monday, pitching the Angels to a 4-2 victory over their Southern California rivals at Camelback Ranch.
The Dodgers were playing a split-squad doubleheader, having sent half their team to play the Milwaukee Brewers in Phoenix.
Saunders, who threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 21 batters he faced, gave up two runs and four hits, striking out two. He’s allowed three runs in his last nine spring innings. Jeff Mathis supplied the offense with three runs batted in.
Dodger starter Carlos Monasterios had been even better this spring, entering Monday’s game riding a streak of eight scoreless innings. But the Angels ended that in the first on Hideki Matsui’s RBI single to left, which scored Torii Hunter from second. Hunter had reached on a two-out double that Dodgers center fielder Jason Repko appeared to make a diving catch on, only to have the ball come loose and roll away.
The Angels left no doubt about their next two runs, making it 3-0 in the second on Mathis’ booming home run to left. Hunter finished with two hits -- both doubles -- for the second consecutive day.
Monasterios, a Rule 5 player who is competing for the last spot in the Dodgers rotation, went four innings, allowing three runs and five hits with a pair of walks.
James Loney was the only Dodger with more than one hit, although Manny Ramirez had a single and was robbed of extra bases in the sixth on a diving catch by Cory Aldridge on the right-field warning track. Ramirez, who had an eventful day, was also thrown out at the plate in the fourth inning following Garret Anderson’s RBI double off the top of the center-field wall.
Casey Blake drove in the Dodgers’ other run with a fifth-inning sacrifice fly. The Angels’ final run came in the sixth on a Mathis sacrifice fly that scored Mike Napoli.
Matsui played in the outfield for the first time in nearly two years but no balls were hit to him in his four innings in the field. He was replaced by Michael Ryan, who also had to leave the game in the bottom of the seventh after colliding with shortstop Gary Patchett trying to chase down a pop fly off the bat of Blake DeWitt.
Ryan had a swollen cheek and Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said he may need stitches above one eye.
-- Kevin Baxter in Glendale, Ariz.