Weaver finally joins the club

CHICAGO —  If the Angels were to admit to having a recipe for success it probably would look like this: Take a dominant starting pitcher, mix with a couple of relievers at the back of the bullpen and season with just enough offense to win.

That’s pretty much what they cooked up Saturday, when Gary Matthews Jr. homered and Jered Weaver and a trio of relievers combined on the Angels’ first shutout of the season, a 3-0 win over the Chicago White Sox that ended the team’s road losing streak at seven.

Of even more importance, however, is the fact that Weaver’s 5 2/3 -inning outing gives the Angels four consecutive impressive performances from a rotation that, 12 days ago, was mostly on the disabled list.

“We put a lot of stock in what our starting rotation can do,” said Angels Manager Mike Scioscia, who has seen injured right-handers Bartolo Colon and Weaver and an inconsistent Ervin Santana combine to go 4-2 with a 3.44 earned-run average in their last two trips through the rotation. “We have the five guys out there we feel will give us the chance to win every night. As one good start turns into another good start, you gain momentum and start to win more.”

It also builds a healthy competition among the pitchers, Weaver said.

“We work off all our starters,” he said. “All five guys go out there and throw up zeros most of the time. It’s just nice to have everybody back as one and work off each other.”

Weaver (1-2) was the last to find his place, rebounding from a poor effort against Detroit in his last start to handcuff the White Sox, who had him on the ropes only once, in the fourth when they loaded the bases on three singles. But the second-year pitcher, who missed all of spring training and the first two weeks of the regular season with biceps tendinitis, got out of the jam by retiring Alex Cintron on a popup to shallow center.

Less than two innings later, Weaver was gone after throwing 107 pitches, but the bullpen took it from there as Justin Speier, Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez combined to hold Chicago to two hits the rest of the way -- with Rodriguez striking out the side in the ninth to earn his seventh save.

The Angels, who have struggled to score on the road this year, gave Weaver just enough offensive support when Matthews drove Jon Garland’s fifth pitch into the right-field seats for the fifth leadoff home run of his career.

“It’s always good to get out to a good start and score some runs and just alleviate some of the pressure off our starting pitcher so he doesn’t have to go out and be perfect,” said Matthews, who has seen the Angels win 11 times in the 12 games in which he has scored.

A leadoff double by Casey Kotchman and run-scoring singles by Erick Aybar and Reggie Willits made it 3-0 in the second, but Garland (0-2) settled down after that, retiring 16 of the final 17 Angels he faced.

By then, however, the night belonged to Weaver and the Angels.

“Everything is coming together nicely,” said Weaver, who struck out five -- including three of the last four hitters he faced -- and did not walk a man. “Mechanically and arm-strength-wise, this is pretty much like my spring training.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com