ANAHEIM — Just another Halos victory?

No, the Angels had to work hard for this one with one of their All-Stars (Vladimir Guerrero) on the bench and the other two off their games.

But they worked hard enough to win it twice, coming back with Maicer Izturis' RBI single in the ninth inning to beat the Oakland A's, 7-6, after closer Francisco Rodriguez had blown a three-run lead in the top of the inning Wednesday afternoon.

The victory was only the third in the past 10 games for the Angels and ended the third consecutive series in which they needed to win the final game to avoid a sweep.

"Right now, we just need to win games," said Angels starter John Lackey, who allowed seven hits and walked four, including one with the bases loaded but managed to get through six innings with a 5-3 lead.

"It doesn't matter how they look. ... It was just good to win, man. That's all we needed to do today."

No one needed to hit the Angels upside the head with a water bottle for that to be apparent. But a fan did hit A's designated hitter Mike Piazza in the back of the helmet with a plastic bottle as Piazza stood in the on-deck circle during Oakland's ninth-inning rally.

The game was interrupted as Piazza gestured angrily, using his bat to point out the fan he thought was responsible. Security responded and Roland Flores, 22, of La Puente was detained and later booked by Anaheim police on suspicion of assault and battery.

It was the second incident of rowdy fan behavior during the series. Two arrests were made Monday after a fight in the stands.

"I'm going to press charges. He's going to spend a night in jail," Piazza told reporters after the game. "It's just unbelievable someone would throw a bottle at a player during a baseball game."

Piazza apparently never got a chance to talk to former teammate Milton Bradley about that kind of thing before Bradley was traded to the San Diego Padres earlier this season.

Just as disconcerting to the Angels was Rodriguez's failure to hold a three-run lead.

With Guerrero given the day off, the Angels put together a group effort on offense, getting three hits each from Garret Anderson, Chone Figgins and Casey Kotchman and stealing three bases (two by Robb Quinlan) to build a 6-3 lead going into the ninth inning with Rodriguez on the mound.

But Rodriguez hadn't pitched in six days and just once in the previous 10. Trouble started quickly when Travis Buck dropped double into shallow center field. Gary Matthews Jr. broke back on the ball then ran in late as it fell between him and infielders Izturis and Orlando Cabrera.

"That was one of those big swings off the end of the bat," manager Mike Scioscia said. "Buck has some power. Gary just broke back and couldn't recover."

Shannon Stewart followed with a broken-bat single to put runners on the corners. One run scored when Nick Swisher bounced into a forceout at second after the bottle-throwing disruption. Piazza followed with another broken-bat single to put runners on the corners again. Rodriguez walked Mark Ellis to load the bases and then walked Mark Kotsay to force in a second run.

Rodriguez insisted he was not out of sync because of all the recent down time.

"A bloop double, broken-bat singles. That's baseball," he said. "I can't control that. When I should have made my pitches to Kotsay, I didn't. In those situations, you have to make pitches and I didn't. Turn the page."

The A's tied the score on Marco Scutaro's sacrifice fly before Rodriguez got out of the inning.

The three runs allowed were a season-high for the Angels closer and only the second time in 41 appearances this season he had allowed more than one run.

It was also his third blown save in 28 chances. All three have come at home, and the Angels have come back to win each of those times Rodriguez let a lead slip away. It kept alive their streak of victories when leading after eight innings intact — 124 games, the longest active streak in the majors.

This time, the comeback started with Kotchman's third hit of the day, a one-out single off left-hander Joe Kennedy in the bottom of the ninth. Kotchman moved to second on a ground out by Matthews (hitless in his past 19 at-bats) and third on a passed ball by catcher Rob Bowen. With two outs, Izturis lashed a 2-and-1 pitch from Kennedy into left field for the winning RBI single.

Izturis has been one of the Angels' best hitters with runners in scoring position. He is 17 for 39 (.436) in those situations including 8 for 18 with two outs.

"Izzy knows his game. He's not trying to drive the ball there," Scioscia said.

"I always look at the hitters ahead of me when they're hitting with runners in scoring position," Izturis said through an interpreter. "I picture myself in the same situation and make a plan for myself based on how they pitch the hitters ahead of me.

"Kennedy was throwing a lot of breaking stuff to Matthews so I was ready for that. He threw me a breaking pitch then a fastball that I fouled back. I was ready for the fastball when he threw it again."

Notes: Angels manager Mike Scioscia left struggling slugger Vladimir Guerrero out of the lineup so he could get back-to-back days off before the team began a series against Detroit. Guerrero, who won the Home Run Derby during the All-Star break, is homerless in 97 at-bats over his last 24 games — the longest drought of his big league career. The Angels have two home runs in their last 18 games, and are 10-15 since Guerrero's last home run on June 23. The eight-time All-Star averaged 36.2 homers over the previous nine seasons, and has 14 this year. ... The Athletics have used the DL 18 times this season — the most since 1997, when they used it 21 times.