Mike Napoli’s home run powers Angels to victory

PHOENIX —  The Angels scored their first run Saturday on what is known among the 10- to 12-year-old set as a “Little League home run,” a play on which Erick Aybar bunted for a hit and raced around the bases on a pair of Arizona errors.

Their second run was pure big league, Mike Napoli’s prodigious ninth-inning home run off the batter’s eye above the center-field wall that gave the Angels a 2-1 interleague victory over the Diamondbacks in Chase Field.

John Lackey threw seven strong innings, giving up one unearned run, five hits and striking out eight, and closer Brian Fuentes recorded his major league-leading 21st save, as the Angels won for the 11th time in 14 games and extended their winning streak to four.

Napoli’s 10th home run, on an 0-and-1 slider from reliever Chad Qualls, was estimated at 428 feet, but Angels Manager Mike Scioscia thought that figure to be conservative.

“That was 450 feet, easily,” Scioscia said. “That ball was squared up. You’re not going to find many balls hit that hard.”

Actually, Napoli hit one here June 23, 2006, that went even farther, a blast into the TGI Friday’s restaurant beyond the left-field wall that traveled an estimated 470 feet, the third longest home run in the park’s history.

“That one had people who were eating ducking,” Lackey recalled. “He’s got some sick power.”

Center fielder Torii Hunter wasn’t an Angel in 2006, but he had a hard time imagining a ball being hit any harder than the one Napoli struck Saturday.

“That ball was crushed,” Hunter said. “Oh my God, that would have been out in old Tiger Stadium, which was 440 feet to center.”

Napoli didn’t get too caught up in the moment. Asked whether he got all of the pitch, he grinned and said in an understated tone, “Yeah, it felt pretty good.”

Napoli hadn’t played since Monday, a game in which the Angels tied a franchise record with six wild pitches, some of them balls Napoli felt he could have blocked better.

Jeff Mathis, the better defensive catcher of the two, started the last three games, all wins, but with left-hander Doug Davis pitching for Arizona and Lackey, who has teamed with Napoli for most of his starts, there was little doubt Napoli would get the nod Saturday.

In addition to his home run, Napoli had two singles. Despite his sporadic playing time, he is 12 for 23 in the last six games he has started, with two home runs and five runs batted in.

“I’ve been taking my batting practices seriously,” Napoli said. “It’s like that’s my game for the day. Instead of trying to hit home runs, I try to hit the ball the other way and work on my swing.”

Scioscia was as pleased with Napoli’s handling of Lackey as he was with his home run.

Lackey, who is 12-4 with a 2.63 earned-run average in 24 interleague starts, appeared to get stronger as the game went on, striking out six of the last eight batters he faced.

Left-hander Darren Oliver, who threw a scoreless eighth inning, got the win, as the Angels improved to 13-4 in interleague play.

“I like what John and Nap did as a battery,” Scioscia said. “It was a good day.”

Arizona took advantage of left fielder Juan Rivera’s error in the fourth inning to score.

Mark Reynolds led off with a single toward the line that scooted under Rivera’s glove. Reynolds took second on the miscue, third on Gerardo Parra’s grounder to second base and scored on Tony Clark’s sacrifice fly.

But the Angels tied the score in the sixth when Aybar led off with a bunt between the mound and first that Davis fielded and threw into right field for an error that allowed Aybar to take third.

One mistake begat another. Right fielder Justin Upton retrieved the ball near the line and, though he did not appear to have a play on Aybar, fired to third base.

Upton’s throw was high, glancing off Reynolds’ glove for another error that allowed Aybar to score.

“That was a great play to lead off the inning with a bunt,” Scioscia said.

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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ANGELS TODAY

AT ARIZONA

When: 1 p.m.

Where: Chase Field, Phoenix.

On the air: TV: Channel 13; Radio: 830, 1330.

Pitchers: Matt Palmer vs. Max Scherzer.

Update: After winning his first six decisions as a 30-year-old rookie, Palmer suffered his first loss in his last start, when he was tagged for six runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings of an 11-1 loss to Colorado on Monday night. He walked five batters in the game, a season high. Scherzer, who began the season on the disabled list because of a shoulder injury, is 3-0 with a 1.46 earned-run average in four June starts and has limited opponents to a .234 average with 24 strikeouts and 10 walks in those games.

-- Mike DiGiovanna