Angels Can’t Make Change Fast Enough

The trading deadline may have come and gone with uncomfortable silence from the Angels, but the roster is not frozen. The Angels made that abundantly clear Sunday, shuffling two roster spots and promising more to come.

“We’re going to shake some things up,” Manager Terry Collins said. “We’re not done. We need to start getting some people’s attention.”

No longer can the Angels count on the grace of the Texas Rangers to keep them in first place. The Angels dropped a game behind Texas in the American League West Sunday after an 8-7 loss to the Boston Red Sox, the Angels’ fourth consecutive defeat and 20th in 29 games.

After the loss before 35,763 at Edison Field, the Angels activated second baseman Randy Velarde and promoted former major league pitcher Trevor Wilson from triple-A Vancouver, with second baseman Justin Baughman and pitcher Mike Holtz sent to Vancouver. Velarde, who hit a home run in each of the two games he played this season, will start tonight.

“There’s no question you need to try to do something to shake it up a little bit,” designated hitter Tim Salmon said. “Hopefully, these guys can spark us.”

Collins wouldn’t suggest what other moves might follow, although the Angels hope to activate catcher Charlie O’Brien later this week and pitcher Ken Hill later this month. They could recall Jarrod Washburn and return him to the starting rotation in place of veteran Allen Watson.

And they could summon slugger Todd Greene, who has hit six home runs in 26 games at Vancouver.

“There’s no specific plan,” General Manager Bill Bavasi said. “At some point, I imagine he’ll be part of our team. Our offense isn’t too strong right now.”

Greene, hampered because of a sore shoulder, will not catch this season. He can play first base, left field and designated hitter, playing time that would come out of the already shrinking amount allocated to Dave Hollins and Cecil Fielder. If both players clear waivers this week, the Angels may have to decide whether they can afford to keep both and add Greene as well.

While solving the Angels’ roster puzzle is not easy, figuring out Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (13-5) apparently was once the sun went down.

“You can’t see a knuckleball in the twilight,” Salmon said.

The game started at 5 p.m. Wakefield carried a one-hit shutout through five innings, but some combination of the night sky and the waking bats knocked him out in the sixth inning.

The Angels scored six times in the inning, with the most resounding hit a two-run home run by Garret Anderson. One night after the Red Sox halted his club-record hitting streak at 28 games, Anderson had three hits.

Unfortunately for the home team, the Angels didn’t put up their six runs until they had spotted the Red Sox eight. Boston scored four runs in the first inning and added one run in the third, another in the fifth and two more in the sixth on Mo Vaughn’s 27th home run.

That made the score Red Sox 8, Angels 0--with all eight runs charged to Jason Dickson (9-9). Although Dickson has won once in seven starts since June 21, and although his 1.42 earned-run average as a reliever sparkles in comparison to his 6.16 ERA overall, Collins said he plans to leave Dickson in the starting rotation.

“He did do a good job out of the pen,” Collins said, “but he’s done pretty well as a starter too. He deserves it. He won that spot back.”

Collins didn’t really want to allow Dickson to face Vaughn in the sixth inning, but such is life managing a tired and overworked bullpen.

“I can’t keep running them in there in the fifth inning,” Collins said.

And, for all the poor pitching and poor karma, the Angels did manage to get their hottest batter to the plate in the ninth inning, representing the winning run. Boston closer Tom Gordon, who has blown but one save in 32 opportunities this season, got Anderson on a ground ball for the final out.

“Nobody in here is giving up,” Anderson said. “I don’t see anybody rolling over and throwing their bats away.”