Stars Keep Dropping as Angels Win Again

The hits keep on coming for the Angels at the plate and in the trainer’s room, where Darin Erstad landed Saturday night after straining his right hamstring while rounding third base in the third inning of a 7-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Angel Stadium.

Erstad was trying to score from second on Troy Glaus’ single to left when he started hobbling down the third-base line before being tagged out at the plate. Erstad, limited to 67 games last season by tendinitis in his right hamstring, had to be helped off the field by a trainer and will almost surely join Garret Anderson (upper back) and Tim Salmon (knee) on the disabled list.

“It looks pretty bad,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s such a gamer that it breaks your heart to see something like that.”

There was better news for the Angels at the plate, where Vladimir Guerrero, who earlier had been plunked in the back by a Paul Abbott pitch, exacted revenge in the seventh when he crushed a double off the wall in center field to score Robb Quinlan with the go-ahead run.

After the Devil Rays intentionally walked Glaus to load the bases and Jose Guillen struck out, pinch-hitter Shane Halter hit a fastball for a grand slam to left-center, sending the sellout crowd of 43,465 waving giveaway Guerrero T-shirts into a frenzy.

The Angels (21-10), owners of the best record in baseball, won their eighth consecutive game and today will try to complete a four-game sweep of the Devil Rays behind five-game winner Jarrod Washburn.

Bartolo Colon turned in his best start for the Angels in nearly a month, giving up two hits and two runs in seven innings. Reliever Kevin Gregg pitched two scoreless innings to help the Angels lower their earned-run average to 3.28 over their last 17 games.

The mood in the clubhouse was tempered by the loss of Erstad, who last season endured two stints on the disabled list because of hamstring problems. Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Angels’ medical director, examined Erstad and indicated that the injury did not appear related to the one that wiped out most of the first baseman’s 2003 season.

“Seeing how hard he worked to get back and then seeing something like this happen, it’s definitely sad,” shortstop David Eckstein said. “He was in a lot of pain.”

The Angel bench, which will be even more heavily taxed with its team leader sidelined for an extended period, continued to deliver in the absence of regulars.

Chone Figgins drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and made two strong throws from third base to get speedy Devil Rays. Quinlan, who replaced Erstad at first, singled in the seventh and scored the decisive run. And Halter, who pinch-hit for Jeff DaVanon later in the inning, delivered the big blow off reliever Trever Miller with his second career slam.

“Good teams have good benches, and our bench is picking us up right now,” Halter said. “Those [injured] guys are our horses, and hopefully they’ll be back after a couple of weeks.”

Tempers flared in the third when, after Figgins drove in Adam Kennedy with a sacrifice fly to tie the score, 1-1, Abbott hit Guerrero in the back with his next pitch. Guerrero turned and glared at Abbott before taking first base.

Colon (4-2) retaliated in the fourth when he hit leadoff hitter Tino Martinez in the back with a 94-mph fastball, prompting home plate umpire Eric Cooper to warn Colon and both dugouts. Tampa Bay Manager Lou Piniella raced out of the dugout to argue for Colon’s ejection, but Cooper allowed the right-hander to remain in the game.

Guerrero struck for a run off Abbott in the fifth, when he lined a double down the left-field line to score Eckstein from first base and give the Angels a 2-1 advantage.

The Devil Rays tied it in the sixth after Carl Crawford walked on a full count, went to second on a groundout and took third on a wild pitch. Aubrey Huff’s sacrifice fly to the warning track in center brought Crawford home, but Colon and Gregg shut down the major leagues’ lowest-scoring offense the rest of the way.