Scioscia must bench a hitter

With the Angels’ slumbering offense finally showing signs of awakening, the team’s nine-game swing through three National League parks couldn’t come at a worse time. The loss of the designated hitter means Manager Mike Scioscia will have to start every game with at least one of his big bats on the bench.

Angels pitchers started taking batting practice only last week.

“There is no best-hitting pitching,” Scioscia joked. “It’s like saying what’s the best punishment. It’s [more] like the least-worst hitter.”

Scioscia is leaning toward an outfield alignment that will keep Vladimir Guerrero in right and Torii Hunter in center. Guerrero is batting .425 during his current 10-game hitting streak and shares the team RBI lead with Hunter, who has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games and tops the team in runs scored. That will leave Garret Anderson and Gary Matthews Jr. to platoon in left.

“We talk about this every year about this time when we go into National League parks,” Scioscia said. “I think an American League club is obviously going to be at a slight disadvantage as far as the continuity of their offense just because you’re taking a DH bat out, which on most clubs is a prominent bat.

“We have the depth where hopefully it won’t affect us as much. But obviously there’s a fourth outfielder and there’s only three that are going to be in the lineup.”

Downward Speier

Justin Speier was sitting in the Angels’ clubhouse Wednesday shortly after giving up his fourth game-winning home run of the season -- and his seventh homer in 28 1/3 innings overall -- when pitching coach Mike Butcher sidled up and talked with his reliever in hushed tones.

A few minutes later Speier was smiling. But Butcher is probably going to need more than a few funny lines to get the pitcher back on track.

Speier hung a slider to the Mets’ Damion Easley on Wednesday, slipping back into the funk Butcher thought he had corrected a month ago after Speier gave up game-winning home runs in consecutive appearances at Tampa Bay. The right-hander followed that by giving up two runs in his next 11 innings.

“We win as a team and we lose as a team; I just ended up giving up the winning run,” Speier said. “I made a bad pitch, it stinks and we lost the game.”

Short hops

Wednesday’s loss, which also included a blown save by Francisco Rodriguez, only his second in 30 chances, marked the second time in 40 games that the Angels have lost after taking a lead to the ninth. . . . The 16 runs the Angels scored in three games against the Mets were the most they have scored in a three-game series since mid-May, when they got 17 against the Dodgers.

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com