Colon’s Anaheim career near end

Bartolo Colon appears to have pitched for the last time in front of the home fans at Angel Stadium.

Colon, who won the Cy Young Award in 2005 but has since been hampered by injury, was scratched from today’s scheduled start because of back stiffness, Manager Mike Scioscia said Tuesday.

Ervin Santana will start in place of Colon. Scioscia said Colon could start a game next week, with the Angels playing at Texas and Oakland, but by then the team might not be able to accommodate him as it lines up its starting rotation for the playoffs.

If Colon does not start next week, his Angels career probably is over. The Angels do not figure to include him on their playoff roster, and his contract expires after the season.

Colon, 33, declined to speak with reporters. He is 6-7 with a 6.68 earned-run average this season.

Colon’s contract -- four years for $51 million -- is the largest given to a pitcher in Angels history. In those four years, he is 46-33 with a 4.69 ERA.

In 2004, he went 18-12 with a 5.01 ERA. In 2005, he went 21-8 with a 3.48 ERA, becoming the Angels’ first 20-game winner since Nolan Ryan in 1974.

He pitched 431 innings over those two years. He has pitched 146 in the last two years of the contract, with four stints on the disabled list because of a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder, inflammation in his shoulder and elbow and a strained muscle in his back.

Kelvim Escobar has pitched 189 2/3 innings this season, more than in all but one season of his career. He has an 11.46 ERA in his last four starts, and he has not completed six innings in any of them.

Scioscia says there are no plans for him to skip a start, although they will have the luxury of juggling their rotation after they clinch the American League West championship. He says Escobar has maintained his velocity, allaying concerns about a tired arm at the end of the season.

Pitching coach Mike Butcher said the Angels have “backed off” on Escobar’s work between starts to keep him fresh.

Butcher said he would remind Escobar to limit his pitch selection in any given game, the better to keep the pace and pitches crisp.

“That’s what made him successful,” Butcher said. “He’s kind of gotten away from that the past couple starts.”

Baseball officials hope to meet with Albany (N.Y.) County Dist. Atty. David Soares by the end of the week, seeking direct confirmation that Angels outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. is not a target in a national investigation into Internet drug trafficking.

Heather Orth, spokeswoman for Soares, told The Times last week that Matthews is not a target.

Once that confirmation is secured, Matthews was expected to be asked to meet with representatives of the commissioner’s office to discuss an SI.com report that human growth hormone was shipped to him in 2004. Baseball did not ban HGH until 2005, so it is doubtful a suspension could be sustained in arbitration should Commissioner Bud Selig decide to impose one.

Within the last week, Selig’s representatives have met with Rick Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals and Jay Gibbons of the Baltimore Orioles, each linked in published reports to HGH shipments as part of that New York investigation.

No discipline has been announced for either player.

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com