This time, Angels compete in St. Pete

THE ANGELS bounced back from a loss Friday night with a win Saturday in St. Petersburg (Flickr).

One night after starting out with a 4-0 lead and losing to the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, the Angels built a 4-0 lead but hung on to it, posting a 5-3 win.

Once again, that allowed the Halos (35-36) to creep within one victory of a .500 winning mark.

Saturday’s win was keyed by Jose Suarez’ pitching and home runs by Dennis Fletcher, Justin Bour and Kevan Smith. Suarez (2-1) worked 5.2 innings, giving up five hits and three earned runs. He struck out three batters and walked one.

His only real misstep was yielding a three-run home run to Yandy Diaz in the bottom of the sixth that accounted for all the runs for Tampa Bay (43-28).

Saturday’s results finds the Halos still in fourth place in the American League West, one game behind the third place Oakland A’s (35-35) and 13 games out of first.

The Angels will go for the black ink on Sunday (Father’s Day) against the Rays at 10:10 a.m.