The Indians and Angels engaged in a tight pitching duel through eight innings, with the Angels on top 2-1. Carmona pitched six strong innings, and Joe Saunders went eight for the second time. Francisco Rodriguez came on in the ninth for the save, but his ankle is bothering him:

Rodriguez, looking for his fourth save, has been experiencing ankle problems after slipping off the top step of the dugout last week and tweaking his right ankle - the one he pushes off with. It has caused him to alter his mechanics.

"It's really painful," Rodriguez said. "I couldn't locate my fastball and I had no power in my legs to push off. As soon as I lift my leg, all the pressure and all my weight is on my ankle, so I was trying to do it all with my arm."

The first four Indians reached against K-Rod on two doubles and two walks. He did record one out when Peralta tried to stretch his double into a triple. Shields came on to finish the inning, but the two singles he allowed gave the Indians a 4-2 lead.

So now it was Joe Borowski's turn.

Borowski retired Chone Figgins to start the inning, but walked Gary Matthews, gave up a single to Vladimir Guerrero and walked Garret Anderson to bring Hunter to the plate. Hunter sent Borowski's 1-0 pitch high and deep over the left-field wall.

Borowski pitched a bit on the edge in 2007, but he kept his walks low. That limited the damage from hits off him, especially the nine homers in 65 2/3 innings. Last night his lack of control cost the Indians the game.

Hunter's homer also allowed a streak of consecutive victories by the Angels in which they led after eight innings to continue. It is now at 162. They haven't lost under those circumstances since April 19, 2006, at Minnesota.

Hunter's two home runs in the game give him a .727 slugging percentage for the season.