ANAHEIM, Calif. – Jorge Cantu and Aubrey Huff homered on consecutive pitches from Bartolo Colon, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays defeated Los Angeles 8-4 to end the Angels’ eight-game winning streak.

Mark Hendrickson won his seventh straight decision, denying the AL West-leading Angels a chance to reduce their magic number of five for clinching the division title. Los Angeles began the day with a four-game lead over Oakland, which played later against Texas.

The Angels and Athletics begin a four-game series in Oakland on Monday night.

After Cantu hit a two-run shot to center with two outs in the third inning, Huff sent a high drive to right for a 4-1 lead. Jonny Gomes added a solo shot off Colon (20-8) in the fifth.

Hendrickson (11-7) allowed four runs and eight hits in eight innings. The former NBA forward struck out three and walked one before giving way to Danys Baez.

Colon, the AL’s first 20-game winner this season and the first Angels pitcher to reach the plateau since Nolan Ryan in 1974, gave up six runs and 10 hits over five innings in his first loss to Tampa Bay in nine career decisions. He struck out five and walked one.

Vladimir Guerrero drove in two runs, Juan Rivera doubled home another and Garret Anderson had a sacrifice fly to account for the Angels’ scoring.

Bothered recently by back pain, Colon threw 78 pitches and left trailing 6-4. He departed after seven innings in his previous start, a 2-1 win over Texas last Tuesday.

The loss was only his second in 11 decisions dating to July 16.

Cantu’s home run was his 28th, and it extended his club record for RBIs in a season to 114. Huff and Gomes have 21 homers apiece.

Gomes had three hits, including a triple, and Julio Lugo had a pair of doubles, scored twice and drove in another run.

The Devil Rays got a run in the first when Lugo doubled leading off and Carl Crawford followed with an RBI single. They made it 4-1 on the pair of homers in the third.

After Los Angeles closed to 6-4 with two runs in the fifth, Tampa Bay stretched the lead to 8-4 by scoring twice against Brendan Donnelly in the sixth.

Notes: The crowd of 41,733 in their final home game of the regular season gave the Angels a total of 3,404,686, an increase of 29,009 over their previous record set last year. … The Devil Rays took five of nine against the Angels, the first time they’ve won the season series. … There was an official scoring change for the Angels’ 7-3 victory over the Devil Rays on Saturday. Two Tampa Bay runs in the first inning against Jarrod Washburn, initially ruled earned, instead were declared unearned in Sunday’s scoring change. Washburn slipped while fielding a sacrifice bunt, then threw wildly to first for a two-base error. With the change, Washburn was charged with no earned runs in the six innings he pitched to earn the win. … The victory gave the Devil Rays a 37-30 record since the All-Star break and assured them of a winning record in the second half for the first time in their eight-year history.

AP-ES-09-25-05 1916EDT


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.