MATT SHOEMAKER pitched seven strong innings for the Angels on Friday as they beat the Detroit Tigers 7-0 (Keith Allison photo).

Matt Shoemaker’s pitching and a mightily revived offense were quite enough to give the Los Angeles Angels a 7-0 win over the Detroit Tigers in Anaheim Friday night.

Shoemaker (2-2) pitched six scoreless innings and gave up only three hits. He struck out seven batters and walked just one. At bat, the Angels – who had only four hits the night before – rattled 14 hits around the Big A, including Danny Valbuena’s second inning home run.

Mike Trout was back in center field and he had a two-run home run. Valbuena had three hits and Cliff Pennington three also, including two RBIs. Those two are now hitting .290 and .280, respectively.

The Halos are now 18-20 and moved back into second place in the American League West, two percentage points ahead of Seattle and eight games back of the first place Houston Astros. The division is bunching up; there’s only a half-game between and Halos and the last place Oakland A’s (16-19).

Ricky Nolasco (2-2) will have the pitching start for the Angels on Saturday while the Tigers will send Daniel Norris (2-2) to the mound.

DUCKS LOSE TO PREDATORS IN OT

The Anaheim Ducks lost the first game of their Western Conference finals series 3-2 to the Nashville Predators in overtime Friday at the Honda Center.

James Neal scored the winning goal at 9:24 of extra time to give the Preds a 1-0 lead in the series, which will continue on Monday in Anaheim at 7:30 p.m.

The Ducks got off to an early lead on Jakob Silfverberg’s score at 5:15 of the first period, but Nashville answered back with tallies by Filip Forsberg and Austin Watson to take a 2-1 lead.

Hampus Lindholm knotted it up at 7:21 of the third period of an assist from N. Thompson to send the game into overtime.

John Gibson had 43 saves for the Ducks in the losing cause.