Olivares and Angel Power Take Complete Control, 6-3

It was another unassuming outing for Angel pitcher Omar Olivares. He did a little of this, a little of that. Those among the 34,737 at Edison Field probably didn’t even realize he was out there, so invisible was the performance.

Yet, he was center stage at the end, accepting congratulations from his teammates after a 6-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox. It wasn’t a game for the ages, simply 2 hours 22 minutes of vintage Olivares.

“I try to establish a tempo,” said Olivares, who threw the Angels’ first complete game in nearly a year. “I try to get into a rhythm out there. I make a pitch, get the ball back, then I make another and another and another. If I slow down too much, I usually get hurt.”

With such assembly-line behavior, the White Sox could do little except pound one Olivares pitch after another into the ground.

A home run by Tim Unroe, his first in nearly two years, gave the Angels a 4-3 in the sixth. Another by Garret Anderson gave them a little breathing room. They received solid defense, especially by third baseman Troy Glaus.

The game, though, belonged to Olivares, with his take-a-little-off, put-a-little-on style.

“He was a master,” White Sox designated hitter Frank Thomas said. “He pitched his butt off. We had a few chances, but he kept us from the big inning.”

And if the Big Hurt is hurting, then everyone on the White Sox feels the pain.

Olivares struck out only three, but got 17 outs with ground balls, which included two double plays. He made 102 pitches in the Angels’ fastest game of the season.

It was the fourth consecutive game that an Angel starter has gone at least seven innings.

“That’s the key for us,” Manager Terry Collins said. “When a starter goes that deep, you can get the matchups you want from your bullpen.”

Provided you need it.

“Any time I go out there, I try to go nine,” Olivares said.

It was Olivares who threw the Angels last complete game, on May 22 last season. That was during a two-month stretch in which he was the team’s best starter, a role he has assumed again this season.

Olivares (3-2) has gone at least seven innings in three of his five starts. He has allowed three or fewer runs in four starts.

“You get him aggressive and he’s going to get a lot of ground-ball outs,” Collins said. “He has a real good sinker and splitter. If he gets the slider over, that’s three pretty good pitches.”

About the only one that didn’t sink, split or slide was buried into the right-field seats by Chris Singleton--his first major league home run. Greg Norton doubled and scored in the sixth.

There was little else.

Two of the five White Sox hits never left the infield. A third--Thomas’ RBI single that tied the score, 3-3, in the sixth--went just past a diving Randy Velarde.

“The only ground ball that we didn’t make the play on was the error I made,” said Olivares, who booted Mark Johnson’s come-backer in the sixth. “The way I pitch, guys stay on their toes.”

Of which Glaus was the sharpest. He made a diving stop of Magglio Ordonez’s grounder to start an inning-ending double play in the fourth. He robbed Ordonez again in the sixth by charging a chopper and smoothly throwing to first for the out.

“You feed off a guy like Omar,” Glaus said. “He throws a lot of ground balls so you can get in a rhythm.”

But the players who finally gave the White Sox the blues were Unroe and Anderson.

Unroe’s 420-foot homer to left broke a 3-3 tie. It had been so long since his last major league home run that the team for which he hit it (Milwaukee on June 20, 1997) isn’t even in the American League anymore.

Unroe had two hits Sunday, giving him seven hits in 14 at-bats this season.

“I wasn’t very confident about making this team,” Unroe said. “Their roster was pretty much filled before spring training. Then there were some injuries [Jim Edmonds and Gary DiSarcina] and some trades [Dave Hollins and Phil Nevin] and here I am.”

Anderson was there Sunday as well. His two-run homer in the seventh put the Angels ahead, 6-3. It was his fifth home run this season and gave him seven RBIs in the last five games.