Weaver finds a way to win

After battling through a lackluster first inning at Angel Stadium on Saturday, Jered Weaver pulled pitching coach Mike Butcher aside in the dugout and whispered a confession.

“It might be a long one,” the Angels starter said. “I don’t really have my best stuff. I don’t really know where the ball’s going too much.”

Butcher’s response?

Fake it.

“You can’t show emotion. You can’t show weakness,” the coach said. “You’ve got to feel like you’ve got the best stuff in the world when you’re out there. All I said to him during the game is if there’s one guy that can will a ball to where he wants to will it, it’s you.”

It other words, if there’s a way it’s your will, a credo Weaver followed through seven shutout innings to pitch the Angels to a 2-1 victory over the Texas Rangers in front of 41,170.

“That’s a great sign [for] a young pitcher. To be able to hunt and peck through a lineup and make some pitches when he didn’t have his best stuff,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “It was a battle the whole way. We weren’t scoring a lot of runs. He didn’t have his best stuff.

“It just shows how far he’s come to be able to pitch a game like this without his ‘A’ stuff.”

Butcher said it was obvious Weaver’s fastball was a few feet short when he took the bullpen mound to warm up. And he struggled early, giving up a double in the first inning and a single to lead off the second.

But then Weaver toughened, allowing only two of the next 19 batters to reach base, setting down the last 11 in order.

“Everything wasn’t really that sharp,” said Weaver (2-0), who gave up three hits, struck out six and did not walk a batter. “It may be a little dead-arm situation or whatnot. I really don’t know what that is. People always say it, ‘dead arm or whatever.’ I don’t really know what it is or what it really feels like. But I guess I did tonight.

“When you reach back and let it go, everything feels good. But you just don’t have that zip on the ball.”

The Rangers’ Marlon Byrd, who struck out twice, wasn’t buying it.

“He threw strikes. That’s all that mattered,” he said. “All he did was mix up his pitches. It was just one of those [nights] when he was in the zone and we weren’t swinging like we usually do.”

Weaver didn’t need many runs to work with. And the Angels, despite pounding starter Kevin Millwood for 12 hits, didn’t give him many, scoring in the fourth on a single by Howie Kendrick -- who has hit safely in all six games this season -- and an inning later on a Torii Hunter double.

They also had a run taken away in the sixth when Erick Aybar was called out at the plate by umpire Angel Hernandez even though replays showed his slide beat Byrd’s strong throw from center field.

But that wasn’t the only time the Angels were frustrated at the plate. They got runners on in every inning but the eighth, yet wasted most of those chances by bouncing into two double plays and stranding nine men, five in scoring position.

“It was one of those games where we had a lot of opportunities,” Scioscia said. “We had some chances to break that game open [and] couldn’t. And we had to hold on.”

Darren Oliver, who followed Weaver to the mound, gave up a homer to David Murphy, the first batter he faced, to cut the lead. But Justin Speier stranded a runner to end the eighth before a shaky Francisco Rodriguez nailed down his third save by getting pinch-hitter Frank Catalanotto to ground out with the tying run at second.

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com