The Angels scored six in the first and went on to beat the Nationals 8-3 to give them the series win and their fifth straight victory.
The Angels batted around to rough up Nat’s starter Shawn Hill for six runs on five hits, two walks, and two errors in the first inning alone. Chone Figgins lead things off with a walk and took third on Erick Aybar’s single. He scored on Garret Anderson’s sacfly for the first run of the game. Aybar came around to score off Vlad’s RBI-single. Vlad’s hit extends his streak to 15 games, but he left in the next inning with the flu. Hunter, Kotchman, Kendrick and Napoli then each continued the rally and added three more runs to cap off the inning. Napoli added a two-run shot in the third to make it 8-0.
Jon Garland was up 6-0 before even taking the mound, and he sailed for seven innings to get his seventh win. He gave up three runs on six hits, including two solo shots in the third and fourth and one more in the fifth. Jose Arrendondo then took the mound for the last two innings, holding the Nats hitless and scoreless and throwing four K’s.
