Angels Report: ‘Spark’ is sought amid additions

With rosters expanding for the final month of the season, the Angels added nine players to the mix Tuesday. And Manager Mike Scioscia is hoping at least one of them can provide the team with what it has lacked.

“There’s no doubt that we’re looking for a spark,” Scioscia said before the Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 6-2, to snap their second four-game losing streak in 11 days.

Among the additions Tuesday was third baseman David Freese, one of five players activated from the disabled list.

When he fractured the index finger on his right hand in July, the Angels were 14 games over .500 and leading their division by two games. When he returned Tuesday, they were a game under .500, in third place.

“With a month left, you’ve got to have energy,” said Freese, who injected a little bit of that Tuesday by singling and scoring a run. “When things aren’t going well, you kind of get down on yourself. That’s just human nature.

“But the teams that are winning, they stay upbeat.”

In addition to Freese, the Angels reinstated outfielders Matt Joyce and Collin Cowgill, right-hander Cory Rasmus and infielder Taylor Featherston from the disabled list.

Right-handers Mike Morin and Nick Tropeano and catcher Jett Bandy were called up from triple-A Salt Lake, while the team purchased the contract of left-hander Wesley Wright.

Outfielder Alfredo Marte and right-hander Drew Rucinski were designated for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster.

GM search broadens

With the Angels having completed interviews with internal candidates for their vacant general manager’s position, the organization is now looking beyond Anaheim.

It will work first from the list assembled when it hired Jerry Dipoto for the position in 2011.

Dipoto resigned in July.

The runners-up in that 2011 search included New York Yankees assistant general manager Billy Eppler, Texas Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine and Yankees scouting director Damon Oppenheimer.

The team has already interviewed assistant general managers Matt Klentak and Scott Servais, both of whom were hired by Dipoto.

Scioscia, who had a testy relationship with Dipoto, insists he doesn’t “plan on being part of any selection committee” for the new GM but said he’s hoping the organization can unite behind a similar approach.

“You have to be philosophically on the same page,” he said, “all the way down from ownership to the general manager’s seat to the manager to the minor leagues and scouting director, everything that’s important in fueling your major league roster.”

Giavotella is making ‘slow progress’

Scioscia said infielder Johnny Giavotella, sidelined with an undisclosed medical condition, is making “slow progress” in his recovery.

Scioscia said he expects to see Giavotella in the clubhouse when the Angels return home Friday, but he said his return to the field this season is uncertain.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

Twitter: @kbaxter11

Times staff writer Bill Shaikin contributed to this report.