By Mark Saxon  
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

May 28, 2006

ANAHEIM – Jered Weaver didn't sleep well Friday night. He spent a lot of yesterday afternoon seated at his corner locker, staring straight ahead.

Then the butterflies in his stomach really started fluttering when Ramon Hernandez's double rattled into the left-field corner, putting two runners on base in the second inning.

That's when the Angels' best player put the Angels' newest player at ease, and it didn't take a word.

Vladimir Guerrero caught Jeff Conine's medium-deep fly ball – what looked like a sure sacrifice fly – and fired to the plate on one hop to get Javy Lopez on a close play. Weaver and the Angels' awakening bats took it from there in a 10-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

Weaver waited for Guerrero near the top step of the dugout to give him a high-five.

“To get out of that situation kind of made me settle in,” Weaver said.

Two weeks ago, the Angels were taking heat for their reliance on untested rookies. Now, they look like visionaries. They just had to find the right kids.

Weaver dazzled in his major league debut, holding Baltimore to three hits in seven innings. The other young Angels also continued to impress. Kendry Morales kept hammering line drives and deep flies. Mike Napoli had a couple of clutch at-bats, blocked the plate on Guerrero's throw and helped Weaver work his way through a dangerous lineup.

“It's great to see some of the products of our minor league system come up and do well up here,” manager Mike Scioscia said.

Counting Weaver's final few Triple-A starts, he's riding a 34-inning scoreless streak. He treated Miguel Tejada and his teammates a lot like he had the New Orleans Zephyrs five days earlier – stingily.

Weaver turns his back on hitters. That adds a disconcerting bit of deception to a low-90s fastball, a mean streak (he backed several Orioles off the plate) and a well-honed command of the strike zone. Of Weaver's 97 pitches, 64 were strikes.

The Angels won their fourth game in a row, their longest winning streak this season.

Baltimore		AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
BRoberts 2b		3	0	0	0	1	0	.324
Mora 3b		4	0	2	0	0	0	.297
Tejada ss		3	0	0	0	0	0	.327
a-Fahey ph-ss		1	0	1	1	0	0	.267
JvLopez dh		4	0	1	0	0	0	.257
RaHernandez c		3	0	1	0	0	1	.298
RChavez c		1	0	0	0	0	0	.091
Conine 1b		3	0	0	0	1	1	.224
CPatterson cf		4	0	0	0	0	1	.278
Matos lf		3	1	1	0	1	1	.156
Markakis rf		4	0	0	0	0	2	.216
Totals		33	1	6	1	3	6
Los Angeles		AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
OCabrera ss		5	2	1	0	0	1	.273
Aybar ss		0	0	0	0	0	0	.250
Napoli c		4	1	1	1	1	3	.313
GAnderson lf		4	0	1	2	0	1	.265
Murphy cf		1	1	1	1	0	0	.267
VGuerrero rf		4	1	2	1	0	1	.323
McPherson 3b		1	0	0	0	0	0	.250
Salmon dh		4	2	3	2	1	0	.284
Morales 1b		5	1	3	3	0	1	.421
JRivera cf-rf		4	1	1	0	1	1	.226
Quinlan 3b-lf		3	1	1	0	0	0	.270
AKennedy 2b		3	0	0	0	0	1	.281
Totals		38	10	14	10	3	9
Baltimore			000 000 010– 1		6		0
Los Angeles			130 203 01x–10		14		1
a-singled for Tejada in the 8th. E–Weaver (1). LOB–Baltimore 8, Los Angeles 9. 2B–RaHernandez (9), Matos (3), OCabrera (13), Salmon (3), Morales (1). HR–Murphy (1), off Loewen; Morales (2), off Loewen; Salmon (6), off Bedard. RBIs–Fahey (7), Napoli (6), GAnderson 2 (27), Murphy (2), VGuerrero (43), Salmon 2 (15), Morales 3 (5). SB–CPatterson (16). S–AKennedy. RLISP–Baltimore 6 (JvLopez 2, CPatterson, Markakis 3); Los Angeles 5 (OCabrera, Salmon, Morales, JRivera 2). DP–Los Angeles 1.
Baltimore	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Bedard L, 5-4	3 2/3	10	6	6	1	3	78	5.67
Loewen	4 1/3	4	4	4	2	6	65	9.64
Los Angeles	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Weaver W, 1-0	7	3	0	0	1	5	97	0.00
Gregg	2	3	1	1	2	1	49	4.31

Inherited runners-scored–Loewen 1-0.

HBP–by Bedard (Quinlan). WP–Gregg.

Umpires–Home, D.Cousins; First, T.Timmons; Second, J.Brinkman; Third, J.Nelson.

T–2:38. A (Tickets sold)–43,005 (45,037).

 »Next Story»