Angels Feel Even More Frustration

By TIM BROWN

Aug. 3, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Many days Darin Erstad simply has insisted that the Angels win.

He has worn out the patch in left-center field where his singles so often fall, his elbows have flown as he runs the base paths, and he has pushed a game past its familiar pace.

Only a few others are as comfortable as Erstad is there, in a dimension that has made the Angels more than mediocre, more than bland, more than worthy.

Late Wednesday afternoon, as the disgusted Angels trudged away from their clubhouse, Erstad shrugged and said, “I feel all right. There’s just times . . .”

He shook his head. An hour before, the Detroit Tigers defeated the Angels, 5-3, at Edison Field. Erstad was one for five, same as the night before. He had one hit the night before that too.

The Tigers won two of three games against the Angels, came within their closer protecting a three-run lead of a sweep, all this just when it’s about to get very tough for the Angels. For the next month, beginning Friday at Cleveland, the Angels play only the best of the American League. Twenty-seven games against Boston, New York, Toronto, Chicago and Cleveland. Twenty-seven games of pennant races and wild-card chases and much, much more than what the Tigers brought.

The Angels have lost eight of 12 games, most like Wednesday’s. The Tigers scored five runs in five innings against Angel starter Ken Hill (5-7), then wore out their bullpen trying to keep the Angels from doing anything dramatic. As it was, the Angels came from a 5-0 deficit and had three shots at closer Todd Jones with the tying run at the plate in the ninth inning, and didn’t get a hit.

Erstad’s fly ball to center field became the final out. The best player on the field batted .219 on the home stand, so his batting average is .367, merely among the highest in the major leagues. And, still, the Angels are different when Erstad is not at the top of his game. The deficits--daily, almost--seem larger. The offense seems helpless. Tim Salmon, the only clunky part of the lineup in the first half, had 10 hits in the series (four Wednesday), and still the Angels could not win it.

“It’s an indication that one guy doesn’t make or break our lineup,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

“We’re not looking for Tim to carry us to the promised land. We need everybody doing their share. No more. No less.”

Erstad, then, could quit now. But he won’t.

“I haven’t had a lot of good at-bats,” he said. “It’s a case of pitchers making good pitches. And when they don’t, I’m missing them.”

At a moment in the season when Mo Vaughn and Troy Glaus, in particular, aren’t helping much, Erstad’s misses become all the graver. Vaughn was three for 23 in the series and left after the sixth inning because, according to Scioscia, he had a cramp in his biceps. Glaus returned to the lineup after a day off and was 0 for 4.

When Erstad doesn’t produce either, there aren’t enough Rally Monkeys in the jungle to prod the offense, and the wins won’t come unless the pitching gets much tighter. The staff has yielded four or more runs in 12 consecutive games, and an average of nearly seven runs. Hill gave up a two-run homer to Bobby Higginson in the first inning, then four hits in a three-run, fifth-inning rally created in part by his own throwing error.

So, by the time the Angels scored their three runs in the eighth--Salmon had a two-out, run-scoring single and Garret Anderson followed with a two-run double--the Tiger lead was too great to overcome. Tiger starter Brian Moehler (7-7) gave up six hits and a run in seven innings.

“We’ve hit a little tough spot,” Erstad said. “All around, we haven’t done much well. But we seem to play our best ball against those kinds of teams coming up, for whatever reason. That’s encouraging.”

Erstad would hardly think otherwise. It is unlikely the Angels could gain on the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics in the American League West by having to score six or seven runs every game, and virtually impossible if Erstad has a prolonged flat period.

“Anything’s possible,” he said. “I truly believe in it. We’re going to battle until we can’t battle no more, until they tell us we can’t make it to the playoffs. That’s all we can do. It’s a great atmosphere. You can’t doubt anything.

“I feel good. I’m just plugging away. Every day, I grind it out.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

No King of Hill

How Ken Hill compares with staff aces of other AL playoff contenders. Order determined by earned-run average.

PITCHER, TEAM W-L (ERA)

Pedro Martinez, Boston 13-3 (1.42)

Roger Clemens, New York 9-6 (3.78)

David Wells, Toronto 16-4 (3.79)

Chuck Finley, Cleveland 9-8 (3.93)

Jamie Moyer, Seattle 11-3 (4.23)

James Baldwin, Chicago 12-4 (4.40)

Kevin Appier, Oakland 9-8 (4.46)