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  Sunday, Jun. 25 8:05pm ET
Erstad there for Angels at start, finish
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Darin Erstad beat Eddie Guardado, then praised him Sunday night.

Erstad's two-out solo homer off Guardado in the 11th inning gave the Anaheim Angels a 7-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

Darin Erstad
Erstad

"I don't like facing that guy at all," Erstad said of the left-handed Twins reliever. "I think he is, if not the best, one of the best left-handed relievers in the American League."

Guardado said he admires Erstad, too.

"I've been facing him a couple of years, and he's a great hitter," Guardado said. "Well, maybe not great -- you say that about people like Ted Williams. But he's very tough."

Before the homer, Erstad was 1-for-9 against Guardado, counting a weak foul pop in the ninth inning Sunday.

In the 11th, Erstad turned on a 1-0 slider for his second homer of the day and 16th of the season.

"I looked for the same pitch he'd gotten me to pop up earlier. But this slider was more over the plate," Erstad said.

Erstad ended the game the same way he started it. He led off the first with his second game-opening homer of the season and the 10th of his career.

Erstad extended his latest hitting streak to 10 games (16-for-46). It's his fifth streak of the season of at least seven games.

"The guy's an offensive machine," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Erstad, who is the majors' runaway leader with 119 hits while batting .371. "Even by All-Star standards, he's having a phenomenal year."

Shigetoshi Hasegawa (6-2) pitched two perfect innings for the win.

The Angels, who trailed 6-4 after six innings, tied it with two unearned runs in the seventh and missed a golden opportunity to go ahead in the eighth.

With runners on first and third and no outs, pinch-hitter Orlando Palmeiro popped up a bunt into foul territory on a suicide squeeze. Third baseman Corey Koskie caught the ball as pinch-runner Adam Kennedy ran by him, and retreated to tag the bag for the easy unassisted double play.

The Angels had tied it at 6 in the seventh by taking advantage of shortstop Jason Maxwell's throwing error. After Justin Baughman reached with one out on Maxwell's wide throw to first, he went to third on Erstad's single and scored on Benji Gil's groundout.

After a walk to Mo Vaughn, Travis Miller gave way to Bob Wells, who gave up Tim Salmon's single off Koskie's glove as Erstad scored the tying run.

"The bad play (by Maxwell) and the walk hurt us," Minnesota manager Tom Kelly said. "It takes a lot of experience and know-how (to handle tight games), and the kids get a little excited."

The Twins scored five runs in the sixth to take a 6-4 lead. Ron Coomer hit an RBI single, Koskie had a two-run double, Maxwell hit an RBI single and Al Levine walked Denny Hocking with the bases loaded.

Garret Anderson hit a three-run homer, his 20th, to give the Angels a 4-1 lead in the fourth against Mark Redman.

Redman allowed four runs and five hits in five innings, with a walk and four strikeouts.

Cooper, who was working on a four-hitter entering the sixth, was charged with five runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out one.

Game notes
Of the 20 runs the Angels have scored against the Twins in their series -- which concludes Monday afternoon -- 12 have been on homers, nine solos and Anderson's three-run blow. ... Bengie Molina and Vaughn both went 1-for-2 against Redman and are 4-for-5 lifetime against the left-hander. ... Anderson is the third Angel with 20 homers. ... Justin Baughman, who missed all of last season after suffering a multiple leg fracture in the Mexican Winter League, started at second for the Angels in his first big-league appearance since 1998.

 


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