Angels 6, Devil Rays 4

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.- Bartolo Colon pitched into the ninth inning for his seventh win in eight starts, Vladimir Guerrero homered and drove in two runs, and the Anaheim Angels held on for a 6-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Colon (12-9) allowed two runs and three hits in 8 2-3 innings – one out shy of his first complete game this season and 29th of his career. The right-hander was taken out after throwing a season-high 128 pitches. He struck out five and walked three – including Jose Cruz Jr. with one out in the ninth.

After getting Julio Lugo to pop out, Colon was replaced by Francisco Rodriguez. The right-hander walked Toby Hall, gave up an RBI single to Geoff Blum, a two-run double to Jorge Cantu and walked Tino Martinez before getting Carl Crawford to ground out to end it.

Guerrero went 2-for-5, making him 11-for-33 with four homers and 13 RBIs in his career at Tropicana Field. He put the Angels up 1-0 on his 26th homer of the season in the first off Mark Hendrickson.

Guerrero also had an RBI double during a three-run third that extended the Anaheim lead to 4-0.

Colon held Tampa Bay without a hit until rookie B.J. Upton opened the fourth with a ground-single to center. Upton advanced to second when Lugo drew a two-out walk, but both runners were left stranded when Hall lined out to center.

Cruz got the Devil Rays’ second hit, a leadoff double in the seventh. He advanced to third when Lugo flew out and scored on Hall’s grounder.

Colon appeared to awkwardly extend his leg trying to touch first base on Joey Gathright’s infield single in the eighth. He remained in the game after making a couple warmup throws.

Darin Erstad had a run-scoring single, followed by Guerrero’s RBI double and Garret Anderson’s sacrifice fly in the third.

Jose Molina’s RBI single gave Anaheim a 5-0 lead in the fourth and ended Hendrickson’s night in the fourth. Molina scored to make it 6-0 when Devil Rays first baseman Aubrey Huff was charged with an error when he misplayed Guerrero’s two-out grounder.

Hendrickson allowed six runs and five hits in three-plus innings. He has lost four straight starts, giving up 22 runs and 32 hits over 18 2-3 innings.

Notes: Colon is 7-0 all-time against the Devil Rays. … Upton has a nine-game hitting streak. … Anaheim has won eight straight games when the opposition starts a left-hander, and is 27-13 against left-handed starters. … The Devil Rays are 15-27 since they were a season-high two games (40-38) over .500 on July 3. … Cruz has five extra-base hits in his last 26 games.

AP-ES-08-18-04 2205EDT