SAN FRANCISCO — Pinch-hitters Torii Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero opened Los Angeles’ three-run rally with consecutive singles in the eighth inning, and the Angels beat the San Francisco Giants 4-3 Wednesday for their season-high sixth straight victory.

Chone Figgins drove home Hunter and later scored the go-ahead run on Juan Rivera’s groundout for the Angels, who snapped Tim Lincecum’s six-game winning streak with an impressive late surge that included four consecutive hits off the NL Cy Young Award winner.
With top power hitters Hunter and Guerrero rounding back into form after injury absences, Los Angeles is headed home for the weekend Freeway Series with the Dodgers at a season-best six games over .500.
Lincecum (6-2) allowed eight hits and struck out nine, but struggled in the final inning of his first loss since April 12, a span of 11 starts. Travis Ishikawa homered for the Giants, who had won nine of 12 before Los Angeles’ three-game sweep.
Angels rookie Matt Palmer allowed six hits and pitched into the seventh inning against the franchise that employed him for the past seven years, but the 30-year-old right-hander’s teammates prevented his first loss of the year.
The Angels’ maligned bullpen repeatedly came through. Kevin Jepsen (1-2) got two outs for Los Angeles in the seventh. Left fielder Robb Quinlan ended that inning by throwing out Matt Downs at the plate, and Justin Speier stopped San Francisco’s rally in the eighth by striking out Aaron Rowand with two on.
Brian Fuentes pitched the ninth for his 18th save in 21 chances.
After racking up 17 runs in the series’ first two games, Los Angeles played the finale without three of its biggest bats in the starting lineup — but two of those sluggers contributed.
Guerrero is unable to play in the field while recovering from a torn chest muscle, and the Angels also held Hunter out of the starting lineup to rest his bruised ribs for another day. About 45 minutes before game time, Los Angeles scratched Bobby Abreu due to a stiff neck.
Lincecum struck out five of Los Angeles’ first nine hitters and faced little trouble until the eighth. After Figgins hit an RBI double off Downs’ outstretched glove at second base, Erick Aybar’s bounding single brought home Guerrero with the tying run.
Rivera, who had a run-scoring single in the fourth, then scored Figgins with a grounder to third baseman Pablo Sandoval.

NOTES: Downs got his first major league hit in the third inning and added another in the seventh. ... Quinlan caught Sandoval’s fly down the line in the sixth despite tripping on the bullpen pitcher’s mound and falling face first into the dirt. In the seventh, Quinlan made a spectacular, no-bounce throw to the plate to get Downs. ... The Giants drafted Palmer in 2002 and shepherded his slow rise to the majors last season, where he went 0-2 with an 8.53 ERA before signing with Los Angeles as a free agent last winter.