Angels 3 Blue Jays 1
TORONTO — Ricky Romero pitched well, but Ervin Santana was just a little better.
The result was a 3-1 victory for the Los Angeles Angels as they completed a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday before a crowd of 14,246 at Rogers Centre.
Santana (1-2) held the Blue Jays to four hits in his first complete game in three starts this season. He lost his shutout bid on Adam Lind’s third homer of the season, with two out in the ninth inning.
Santana had recorded 17 consecutive outs before Lind’s homer.
“Either one of those guys deserved to win today and fortunately we got it done,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
Romero (1-1) took the loss, allowing one run — on sixth-inning doubles by Erick Aybar and Hideki Matsui — on five hits and two walks in eight innings.
Scott Downs gave up two runs in the ninth, one of them unearned because of an error by first baseman Lyle Overbay.
“Give Santana some credit, he pitched a great ball game against us,” Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. “He got all his pitches over, hit his spots, it was a great battle between both pitchers.”
In his previous start, Romero took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Chicago White Sox, a bid that was broken up on a two-run home run by former Blue Jay Alex Rios. Romero finished with an eight-inning one-hitter in the 4-2 victory.
Sunday’s outing gave him consecutive eight-inning starts for the first time in his career.
Gaston didn’t feel it was a totally wasted effort.
“As far as experience it wasn’t a waste for him,” Gaston said. “He gets a little better every time he goes out there. He did everything he could do. He just lacked some run support.”
“Santana’s a good pitcher and he’s got tremendous stuff,” Romero said. “He did a good job. You’ve got to tip your cap to him. We just didn’t get it done.”
He said the lack of run support did not affect him.
“It’s a shame we just couldn’t put two runs on the board for him,” Lind said. “He pitched his tail off.”
Romero held Los Angeles without a hit through the first three innings Sunday, but Howie Kendrick led off the fourth with an infield single.
The Angels took the lead on the sixth. Aybar led off with a double and Matsui drove him in with the 200th double of his major-league career.
“Matsui was a fastball that was supposed to be away and it missed down the middle,” Romero said.
The Angels scored what turned out to be two important runs in the ninth against Downs. Matsui led off with a double and pinch-runner Mike Napoli scored when Morales’s drive went through Overbay.
“There was a runner on second and I had a chance to go to third and that’s all I was thinking of,” Overbay said. “Instead of back-handing it, I tried to get my glove down. If I backhand it, it’s an easy play and obviously I made it a harder play and obviously it ended up costing us.”
Catcher Jeff Mathis doubled for another run.
That gave his batterymate a cushion.
“Today everything was working how I wanted,” Santana said. “Location was the main thing for me today.”
Notes: Fred Lewis, acquired in a trade with the San Francisco Giants on Thursday, made his first start on Sunday in left field and batted leadoff. He struck out as a pinch-hitter in Saturday’s 6-3 loss. He doubled down the right-field line with two out in the fourth inning, his second at-bat of the game, and stole third where he was stranded