TORONTO (CBC) - Cito Gaston has preached relaxation to his Blue Jays hitters since returning as manager and watched it pay off Saturday night against the unlikeliest of pitchers.

After Los Angeles Angels ace John Lackey struck out four in the first two innings, Toronto batters started waiting on his breaking ball and sprayed the baseball all over the field.

Alex Rios started things in the third inning with a two-run single and Vernon Wells added a two-run home run in the fifth to help the Jays halt a three-game losing skid with a 7-5 win.

"I didn't manage the third inning very well at all," Lackey said. "I had a couple of guys 0-2 and couldn't put them away. I should have never given Vernon Wells something to hit with a base open."

Rios finished with three hits and three stolen bases for Toronto, which took advantage of four Angels errors and scored more than two runs for just the second time in its past six outings.

Rios's first stolen base came on the front end of a double-steal with Wells, and he has been successful in his last 26 attempts. His 21 steals are the most by a Toronto player before the all-star break since Raul Mondesi had 21 in the first half in 2000.

The 3-for-5 showing at the plate was also the right-fielder's fifth multi-hit effort in his last 11 games.

The Blue Jays added single runs in the sixth and seventh innings and banged out eight hits against three pitchers to improve their record to 42-46 on the season.

Starter Roy Halladay pitched a tidy seven innings that included seven strikeouts for his 10th win of the season and lowered his earned-run average to 2.88.

The right-hander retired the first seven batters he faced and set down the American League West division-leading Angels (52-35) in order in the first, second, sixth and seventh frames.

"I thought we mixed pitches pretty well," Halladay said. "They're a pretty good offensive club, so we had to do a good job of trying to work both sides of the plate and change speeds as much as we could."

The only blemish on Halladay's 107-pitch outing was a two-run homer by Vladimir Guerrero - his first dinger in 10 games - in the fourth inning that cut into a 3-0 Toronto lead.

"He's got that knack of hitting pitches like that," Halladay said. "I think with him, if the pitch is down there like that one, it's got to be more in or it's got to be up. I mean, it's not a normal swing path, but it's a ball that he gets to. He's obviously a different type of hitter and he can hurt you at almost any time."

Halladay has allowed five homers in his last six starts, after giving up just one (Justin Morneau) in 77 2/3 innings over his previous 10 starts.

The Angels' slugging outfielder added a run-scoring double off relief pitcher Scott Downs in the eighth.

After the Guerrero blast, Halladay (10-6) kept 11 of the next 14 batters off base to improve to 6-5 in 14 career starts against Los Angeles.

Trailing 7-3 in the ninth inning, the Angels loaded the bases against Jays closer B.J. Ryan and scored twice on a Howie Kendrick single and a double-play grounder by Mike Napoli.

Chone Figgins then doubled to left-centre before Casey Kotchman flied out to Rios to end the threat.

Lackey, the AL's pitcher of the month for June, failed to pitch at least seven innings for the first time in 10 starts this season and saw his record slip to 6-2.

He entered Saturday's contest with a 1.44 ERA, the lowest mark in the majors since May 14.

The Angels will send Jon Garland (7-5) to the mound Sunday against Jesse Litsch (8-4) in the finale of the three-game series.

With files from the Associated Press

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