Piniero, Angels Beat Twins 4-1
ANAHEIM (AP) -- Joel Pineiro posted his first victory in almost two months and Bobby Abreu homered, leading the Los Angeles Angels to a 4-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday in the rubber game of the weekend series.
Pineiro (6-6) allowed a run and five hits over seven innings. The right-hander, making his third start since a brief demotion to the bullpen, was 0-3 with a whopping 10.30 ERA in six starts since beating Seattle 9-3 on July 9 at Angel Stadium.
The Angels remained 3 1/2 games out of first place in the AL West behind the Texas Rangers, who won 11-4 at Boston.
Torii Hunter and Vernon Wells added insurance runs with RBI singles in the eighth inning, and rookie Jordan Walden followed Scott Downs out of the bullpen with a hitless ninth to get his 28th save in 37 chances.
Kevin Slowey (0-4) allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings for Minnesota. Twins catcher Joe Mauer returned to the lineup as the designated hitter, going 1 for 2 with a homer and two walks after missing two games because of an upper respiratory infection.
Slowey, who made 82 starts for Minnesota over the previous four years, avoided arbitration in January by signing a one-year, $2.7 million contract. But he began the season in the bullpen after losing out to Nick Blackburn and Brian Duensing for one of the last two spots in the rotation coming out of spring training.
Slowey made only six relief appearances before going on the disabled list May 25 with an abdominal strain that kept him off the 25-man roster for almost three months. The 27-year-old right-hander was inserted back into the rotation on Aug. 19, and will remain there for the time being with Blackburn and Francisco Liriano on the disabled list.
Abreu opened the scoring in the first with his seventh homer, a towering drive to right field on a 3-2 pitch that ended up in the back of the old Angels bullpen. It ended a home run drought of 18 games and 60 at-bats since his tiebreaking two-run shot against Yankees closer Mariano Rivera on Aug. 9 in New York.
The Angels made it 2-0 in the third when second baseman Trevor Plouffe lost track of the number of outs and didn't attempt a relay to first following Howie Kendrick's grounder to third. Hank Conger scored on the play and Kendrick was credited with his 51st RBI.
Mauer got the Twins on the board in the fourth with his second home run of an injury-plagued season that has limited the three-time AL batting champ to just 73 games. He had a career-high 28 homers in 2009, when he was the AL MVP.
NOTES: The day off manager Mike Scioscia gave Abreu on Saturday ended any chance he had of playing in 150 or more games for the 14th consecutive season. He remains tied with Willie Mays for the major league record in that category. ... The Angels increased their active roster to 31 players by recalling RHP Trevor Bell from Triple-A Salt Lake to help shore up their bullpen. ... The Angels' Orem farm club in the Advanced Rookie League made the playoffs for the 11th consecutive season under manager Tom Kotchman. Three of the players in Sunday's Angels lineup -- Kendrick, Erick Aybar and 1B Mark Trumbo -- started out on that club. So did CF Peter Bourjos, who had the day off. ... Aybar extended his hitting streak to 14 games with two singles, including his 11th bunt hit of the season. ... Conger threw out Jason Kubel and Danny Valencia trying to steal second base in the second and fifth innings, respectively. The rookie came in having thrown out only eight of 58 baserunners trying to steal. ... Downs has not allowed an earned run in 27 2-3 career innings against Minnesota, spanning 26 appearances.
