Suddenly Angels feel at home on road

CINCINNATI —  For nearly a month, the Angels didn’t seem to know where they were headed on the road or what to do once they got there.

They lost a series against Cleveland that was relocated to Milwaukee because of inclement weather, and were swept by Boston and Oakland before dropping the opener of a series against Chicago, their eighth defeat in their first nine games away from Angel Stadium.

Now it’s as if the road has become an endless procession of pillow mints and limousine rides.

Not even another middling start from Bartolo Colon could derail the Angels on Thursday afternoon at Great American Ball Park during a come-from-behind, 9-7 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

The Angels rallied from a 5-3 deficit with a six-run seventh inning to improve to 17-8 on the road since their 1-8 start and 7-2 in interleague play. They are averaging 7.2 runs on a nine-game, three-city trip and have won nine of their last 12 games to push their lead over Seattle and Oakland to five games in the American League West.

Next stop: Dodger Stadium tonight for the Freeway Series.

“We knew that was a fluke, that first road trip,” reliever Scot Shields said. “We played some pretty good teams and ran into some pretty good pitching. We knew we’re better than that. It was only a matter of time for us to get back out on the road and play good baseball.”

The Angels (42-25) have the best record in franchise history after 67 games, and things are going so well that they won for the second time on this trip when Colon put them in a bind. They pulled out a 10-6 victory over St. Louis last Friday after Colon had dropped them into a 4-0 hole, and they again had some catching up to do Thursday when Alex Gonzalez’s two-run homer inside the left-field foul pole gave the Reds a 5-3 lead in the sixth inning.

Colon also gave up Ken Griffey Jr.’s 579th career homer earlier in the inning and has given up nine homers in his last four starts after giving up four homers in his first six starts.

“I’m thankful for the hitters,” Colon, who gave up seven hits and five runs in six innings, said through an interpreter.

The aggressive, free-swinging Angels aren’t known for their patience, but some restraint served them well during a seventh inning in which they had three walks and sent 10 men to the plate.

Reggie Willits and pinch-hitter Erick Aybar opened the inning with consecutive walks, and Chone Figgins singled to left to load the bases. Orlando Cabrera walked on five pitches to force in a run and Vladimir Guerrero followed with a two-run single to right-center to give the Angels a 6-5 lead.

Gary Matthews Jr. then hit a sacrifice fly, and Casey Kotchman and Jose Molina had run-scoring singles to extend the Angels’ advantage to four runs.

“We’re starting to show the ability to come back and string some hits along and just really have solid at-bats in the late innings,” Matthews said. “It really seems like guys find a way to get it done, and for us it’s by bearing down.”

Closer Francisco Rodriguez pitched a shaky ninth in which he gave up a run but struck out Adam Dunn with a runner on third base for the final out to record his 21st save in 22 chances.

Success has become so commonplace for the Angels that Shields said he couldn’t remember the last series the Angels had lost. It was May 22-24 against Detroit at Comerica Park.

“We won another series,” Shields said. “That’s the thing that counts. If we keep winning the series we’re going to end up pretty good.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com