ANAHEIM -- As a wise old man at the age of 26, Joe Blanton downplayed the significance of his first career victory against the Angels, a team that has treated him almost as poorly as he has treated them kindly.

In yet another one-run struggle between the two American League West rivals, Blanton finally came out ahead. He had his way through five innings and needed help to get through the sixth, but he gave the A's bullpen foursome just enough room to coax a 2-1 victory out of the series finale before 37,783 Sunday at Angel Stadium.

Blanton has rarely been hit hard against the Angels, but he's rarely had luck and support, either. He had a little bit of both Sunday, making pitches to dig his way out of trouble in the second and fourth innings before manager Bob Geren got the chance he had been waiting for to run deep into a fresh bullpen and salvage a series split.

Left-hander Alan Embree gave up an infield single to Maicer Izturis in the sixth inning, scoring Garret Anderson to cut the Oakland lead to 2-1.

That was the last time the Angels were heard from. Kiko Calero needed 17 pitches to dispose of the Angels in order in the seventh inning. Justin Duchscherer threw a perfect eighth, dispatching the Angels in 12 pitches. Huston Street also did away with the Angels on a dozen pitches in the ninth, recording his second save to make a winner out of Blanton.

"You can't really allow yourself to look at numbers," Blanton said. "If you get caught up in that instead of making good pitches, it can cost you. You just try to keep the games close and hope that, like today, the bullpen comes in and slams the door."

Blanton (1-0) gave up five hits and one earned run in 5 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out two. He had only one perfect inning, the fifth, and had limited the Angels to only three hits through five. He encountered trouble in the sixth when Anderson greeted him with a leadoff single and Casey Kotchman followed with a double. Blanton struck out his final batter, Howie Kendrick, before Geren called on Embree.

Embree got Izturis to hit a deep grounder to short, where Bobby Crosby had no play at first. He tried to nip Kotchman at third but could not, and Embree escaped the inning with a strikeout of pinch-hitter Robb Quinlan.

"That's what the bullpen is here to do," Embree said.

Geren was delighted with the 'pen's effort.

"That's the way we envisioned it in Spring Training," he said. "It was a clutch pitching performance late in the game by the bullpen."

Geren also noted that he was pleased with Blanton's efficiency, despite the fact that Blanton needed help to get out of the sixth inning and threw 98 pitches (58 strikes). He still turned in Oakland's sixth consecutive quality start, beating Kelvim Escobar (1-1).

Blanton got offensive help in the form of RBI doubles from Shannon Stewart in the third inning and Nick Swisher in the fourth.

"I thought Blanton was efficient," Geren said. "I'd take that every time., I really would. Anybody could have a better game from time to time, but if that's the norm, that's fine."

Blanton's poise was as important as his performance. The A's (3-4) and Angels (5-2) have now played 11 one-run decisions in their past 23 meetings. Of those, 17 have been decided by two runs fewer. Blanton lowered his career ERA to 3.60 ERA against the Angels and improved his lifetime mark against them to 1-6, a strong indication that he's become familiar with pitching against them with a small margin for error.

Geren and catcher Jason Kendall said they have both observed Blanton's progression into a calm and cool professional pitcher, which both felt helped him prevail Sunday.

"His composure and attitude have changed. I really like that," Geren said. "He's maturing as a pitcher and as a person. I like his mound presence and I think his poise has improved."

Kendall did not shake off that assessment.

"[Blanton] will just get better and better the more experience he has," Kendall said. "He learns from his mistakes. He's not just one of these guys happy to be here. He's always trying to get better. He was able to work both sides of the plate with his fastball. If he can do that, he'll have success. No matter how good of a lineup you're facing, if you can locate your fastball, you'll be fine."

As for Blanton, he simply shrugged off getting the burden off his back, called it no big deal with a soft word or two, and a hint of the same composure that he showed when his first career victory against the Angels was in the balance.

John Klima is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.