ANAHEIM Ervin Santana at home? The Angels like their chances.

The Angels against the Dodgers at home? They really like their chances.

Santana at home against the Dodgers?

Forget about it.

Strangely out of his element on the road, Santana was back in friendly territory Friday night at Angel Stadium, where he steered the Freeway Series further south with a recharged offense smiling behind him in a 9-1 victory in front of announced sellout of 44,342.

Santana matched a season low with one run allowed in six innings and improved to 4-1 at home this season and 22-6 for his career. It was a performance that certainly will quiet talk about the Angels' most inconsistent starter losing his spot in the rotation.

"His stuff today was a notch above any team we've seen the past three or four starts," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.

Santana outdueled the Dodgers' Brad Penny, who suffered his first loss in nine starts and allowed eight earned runs after giving up one in his previous three starts combined.

"You know you're going to lose a game. I don't care if I give up 10 runs or one run and lose, it's the same result," Penny said. "I wasn't horrible. I was around the plate, but I wasn't locating as well as I have been in the past."

Reggie Willits continued to make Angels fans forget about injured Garret Anderson with a 2-for-4, two-RBI performance. Willits improved his average to .371 largely from the leadoff spot.

Shea Hillenbrand went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and is 5 for 11 in his past three games. It was the third consecutive game the Angels had double-digit hits, a product of a mostly healthy lineup and plain timely hitting.

The Angels were 5 for 13 with runners in scoring position.

Willits got the Angels off on the right foot when he walked to lead off the bottom of the first and scored on Orlando Cabrera's double. He singled to start the bottom of the third, stole second and came home on Vladimir Guerrero's broken-bat groundout to give the Angels a 2-0 lead.

After the defeat, Dodgers slugger Jeff Kent, who went 0 for 4, voiced his disapproval of interleague games.

"They're comical. I've (complained) about this forever," he said. "I grew up in this game not playing interleague games. Then all of a sudden, they force-feed it to you. It's too bad that we're chasing the dollar instead of the integrity of the game."

Kent said it was difficult to get motivated because "you don't know the other team, and there's no rhythm to the game for the players."

The Angels blew it open with a five-run sixth. Gary Matthews Jr. led off with a single and reached third when Andy LaRoche couldn't field a throw cleanly.

Maicer Izturis drove in Matthews and the hit parade continued as Hillenbrand, Mike Napoli and Willits knocked in runs. When the inning finally ended the Angels had gone through their lineup and were ahead, 8-1.