Angels’ Matt Shoemaker, Josh Hamilton make progress in returns

Matt Shoemaker said he “felt great” after a bullpen workout of 30-40 pitches on Sunday, the strongest indication yet that the Angels’ right-hander, who is recovering from a mild left rib-cage strain, will pitch in the American League division series.

And left fielder Josh Hamilton took a positive step toward returning from right rib-cage and chest injuries, swinging off a tee, hitting soft toss, throwing, running and tracking pitches from the batter’s box during Shoemaker’s bullpen session.

But Hamilton, who played in only one of the team’s final 22 games, won’t know whether he’ll be ready for the division series until he pushes himself harder during batting-practice sessions in Anaheim on Monday and Tuesday and hits off live pitching Wednesday.

“I’m going to have to just swing,” Hamilton said. “I can’t be over here trying to remind myself every time I swing to just swing with two hands. So tomorrow will be another big day.”

Hamilton said he didn’t feel the “spasm” in his chest that prevented him from swinging and made it difficult to breathe at times in the previous four days. But he wasn’t able to finish his swing with his normal one-hand follow-through yet.

“The pain isn’t the issue, it’s the spasm part of it,” Hamilton said. “As long as I can play and not spasm, I’ll be fine. That means I have to get after it the next couple of days, push it a little bit, because I can’t baby it, then get in the game Thursday and it happens.”

Shoemaker, who was injured on Sept. 15, threw all of his pitches at “full intensity” and felt only a “touch” of tightness, which he said he could pitch through.

“Hopefully in a couple of days, I won’t feel it at all,” Shoemaker said. “Each day, it has felt better.”

Shoemaker, who went 16-4 with 3.04 earned run average this season, is expected to face hitters in Angel Stadium on Tuesday or Wednesday. He said he is “very confident” he’ll pitch in the division series, though Manager Mike Scioscia wouldn’t say when.

Jered Weaver will start Game 1 on Thursday, and C.J. Wilson is expected to start Game 2 on Friday. The Angels appear to be leaning heavily toward using a three-man rotation in the first round, so Shoemaker would likely start Game 3.

“We’ll eventually settle on a rotation that can get us to our goal, but how it lines up, we don’t really know,” Scioscia said. “There are too many variables to make those decisions.”