Angels rally to pin 3-2 10th-inning loss on Indians

Saturday’s Indians-Angels game was not completed in time for this edition.

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Now that the Los Angeles Angels apparently have straightened out setup man Scot Shields, it’s time to get closer Francisco Rodriguez back on track.

Rodriguez blew another save for John Lackey in the ninth inning, giving up a tying home run to Ryan Garko.

But Kendry Morales lined a single past a drawn-in infield in the 10th, helping the Angels beat the Cleveland Indians 3-2 on Friday night.

Despite K-Rod’s six blown saves this season, the Angels are still perfect in their last 147 games when leading after eight innings.

Praise

“Frankie’s one of the best in the game, but everybody goes through these stretches,” said Shields (4-5), who broke Dave LaRoche’s franchise record for career victories by a reliever after allowing 15 earned runs in 121⁄3 innings over his previous 13 appearances.

“Frankie’s got the stuff. It’s just not going his way right now, but he’s definitely going to bounce back. He’s one of the best in the business for a reason, so he’ll be fine.”

Rodriguez, trying to preserve Lackey’s 17th victory, gave up Garko’s 16th home run on a 2-1 pitch. It was the third homer K-Rod has allowed in 582⁄3 innings this season.

“I just tried to get a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it. I didn’t want to swing at one of those hard sliders in the dirt,” Garko said. “I hit it pretty good, but I didn’t think it was going to get over. I thought it was going to hit the wall. It’s hard to hit balls out in that right-center gap because of how high that wall is. It’s too bad we couldn’t find a way to get one more, because we had him on the ropes a little bit.”