Estes, Giants Top Angels

The players who cost Shawn Estes and the San Francisco Giants the lead were the same ones who got it back.

Marvin Benard and Stan Javier let a two-run double by pitcher Steve Sparks drop between them in the fifth before delivering clutch hits in a three-run seventh to help the Giants beat the Anaheim Angels 6-2 Tuesday.

"I could have got upset about it, but I didn't," said Estes, whose shutout was spoiled when Benard and Javier couldn't catch Sparks' blooper to center. "I guess you could say they redeemed themselves."

"We needed to get him a victory, for our sake and for his sake," Giants manager Dusty Baker said.

Benard led off the seventh with a single and went to second on Bill Mueller's sacrifice bunt against Sparks (2-5), who was then relieved by Scott Schoeneweis. One out later, Armando Rios singled off shortstop Andy Sheets' glove to score Benard with the go-ahead run.

Javier's RBI single made it 4-2 and Rich Aurilia added a run-scoring single off Mark Petkovsek to give the Giants a three-run lead.

"There was some timely hitting. That's always what you want," Baker said.

The Giants have won six of their last eight games and are 22-12 in interleague play since 1997.

The Angels are on a slide further down the AL West cellar, having lost four of their last five games.

"Things aren't going too good right now," Sheets said. "But the pitchers have been great. A couple of wins, and we'll be all right."

Trailing 2-0 in the fifth, the Angels tied the game with the help of an extra out.

With one out, Estes struck out Troy Glaus on a hard-breaking ball in the dirt, but the ball bounced away from catcher Scott Servais and back towards Glaus, who inadvertently kicked it down the first base line as he was running out of the batter's box.

Servais could not retrieve the ball in time to catch Glaus, who was safe at first on the strikeout-wild pitch.

With two outs, Sheets singled to right and Sparkfollowed with his tainted double to center on what normally would have been a routine fly ball. The Giants were playing Sparks to hit to right, and the ball fell between hard-charging outfielders Javier and Benard, neither of whom took charge in calling the ball.

"Everything happening badly this year usually happens to Shawn," Baker said. "But today, he didn't want to get affected by it. He just wanted to go back out and pitch."

Given the lead, the Giants bullpen pitched two hitless innings to close it out, one inning each from John Johnston and Robb Nen.

"We got back in the game and couldn't get anything else going," Angels manager Terry Collins said. "We don't get the right people in the right situations to do those things."

The Giants scored twice in the first inning on a solo homer by Jeff Kent, his eighth, and an RBI grounder by J.T. Snow.

Notes: Estes is 3-0 in day games. ... Anaheim 1B Mo Vaughn left after six innings with soreness in his left ankle. He was 2-for-2 with a walk. He is listed day-to-day. ... Giants OF Ellis Burks also left after six innings, citing discomfort in his right knee. ... Giants OF Barry Bonds, out since April 20 after surgery was performed to remove bone spurs in his left arm, is ahead of his rehab schedule and expected to be activated sometime this weekend in Seattle. ... C Todd Greene was back in the starting lineup for Anaheim after leaving Monday's game in the second inning with tightness in his right hamstring. ... Despite being 12th in the NL with a .263 team batting average, the Giants have scored more runs than every NL team except Arizona.

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