Angels Ervin Santana is put on 15-day disabled list

Ervin Santana is on the disabled list again, an inflamed triceps forcing the Angels to call up triple-A right-hander Sean O’Sullivan to start in Santana’s place tonight against the Colorado Rockies.

Santana sat out the first six weeks of the season because of an elbow ligament sprain and was scratched from last Tuesday’s start in San Francisco because of tightness on the outside of his forearm, just below the elbow.

After throwing in the bullpen Sunday, the inflammation drifted to Santana’s triceps area, a potentially disturbing development for a right-hander who is 1-3 with a 7.47 earned-run average in six starts this season and hasn’t come close to regaining his All-Star form of 2008, when he was 16-7 with a 3.49 ERA.

“There is always concern,” Manager Mike Scioscia said when asked whether he was worried Santana’s season would be filled with elbow setbacks. “But in subsequent MRI tests, the ligament is healed. Where this leads, you never know, but we’re confident this [inflammation] will be flushed out and he’ll be ready to go.”

Santana, whose 15-day DL stint is retroactive to June 12, didn’t consider his latest injury a major setback.

“The pain is not really bad,” Santana said. “I just told them I don’t want to pitch until I’m not feeling any pain.”

Santana will throw several bullpen sessions over the next week or so. He is eligible to be activated Saturday but will remain sidelined until at least early July.

“Ervin made a lot of progress, but we’re going to give him eight to 10 days to throw a couple more power bullpens,” Scioscia said. “We’re disappointed because we’re anxious to see him with his good stuff . . . but he’s just not quite ready.”

O’Sullivan, 21, filled in for Santana last Tuesday and gave up one run and five hits in seven innings of his major league debut, an 8-1 victory over the Giants.

“I’m excited, especially to be here in front of the home crowd,” said O’Sullivan, who joined the Angels on Monday. “I was hoping to get another chance. I’m going to try to do a good job again.”

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Slapstick slugger

Vladimir Guerrero, who has hit at least .300 with 25 home runs or more for 11 seasons in a row, has only one home run in 128 at-bats, and of his 36 hits, 30 are singles.

But Scioscia said he has no plans to drop Guerrero, who lifted his average from .222 to .281 since returning from a torn right chest muscle on May 25, out of the cleanup spot . . . yet.

“That would be a little premature right now,” Scioscia said. “We would only do that for a couple of reasons -- one, he’s not helping the team at all, and that’s not the case. The other would be to take pressure off him and get him to relax.

“But if you’re hitting down in the lineup, situations are going to find him anyway. I think our lineup, top to bottom, is deeper with Vlad in the middle. Right now, he’s a presence behind Torii [Hunter], and that’s important.

“But we’ll monitor it, and if it gets to a point where he needs to take a half-step backward to go forward, we’ll consider it.”

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Short hops

Trevor Bell extended his triple-A scoreless streak to 16 innings with seven shutout innings against Sacramento on Sunday. The Angels’ top pick in the 2005 draft threw a shutout in his first game for Salt Lake. . . . Shane Loux (shoulder inflammation) will resume his rehabilitation assignment at Salt Lake tonight.

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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ANGELS TONIGHT

VS. COLORADO

When: 7.

Where: Angel Stadium.

On the air: TV: Fox Sports West; Radio: 830, 980, 1330.

Pitchers: Sean O’Sullivan vs. Ubaldo Jimenez.

Update: O’Sullivan, 21, will make his second start in place of the injured Ervin Santana, who was put on the disabled list Monday because of an inflamed triceps. Last Tuesday night in San Francisco, O’Sullivan replaced Santana and gave up one run and five hits in seven innings of an 8-1 win over the Giants. Jimenez is 5-3 with a 2.69 earned-run average in 10 starts since the beginning of May and has won his last three starts, including a 6 2/3 -inning, one-run, seven-strikeout performance against Tampa Bay on Thursday.

-- Mike DiGiovanna