BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Scott Told to Take Long Way Back

Angel reliever Darryl Scott received an emergency phone call from his family during Wednesday night’s game, telling him that his wife had gone into labor, and at 1:30 in the morning, he was on a red-eye flight to Minneapolis.

Scott was at the Minneapolis hospital with his wife at 1:30 Thursday afternoon when he got a call from Dan O’Brien, Angel vice president/baseball operations.

The good news: O’Brien told him that that he had a few extra days to spend with his wife before reporting back to work.

The bad news: Don’t come to Anaheim. You’re being optioned back to triple-A Vancouver.

Scott, who had just put a deposit down for the next 1 1/2 months on an Orange County apartment, was being moved off the 25-man roster to make room for right-handed reliever Doug Linton.

“The timing wasn’t the best,” O’Brien said, “but you can’t put the waiver rule in tune with a maternity ward. I called him as soon as I could because I felt it was better to tell him than for him to wake up (Friday) morning and have someone say, ‘Hey, you’re going back to Vancouver.’ ”

Linton, 28, a native of Santa Ana who graduated from Canyon High School in Orange and attended UC Irvine, was 0-1 with a 6.55 earned-run average in four appearances with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was 2-5 with two saves and a 5.08 ERA at triple-A Syracuse.

The Scotts’ baby still had not been born when the Angels played Thursday.

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The Angels are hopeful that reliever Joe Grahe (rotator cuff tendinitis) can come off the disabled list by the end of June, but if not, Rodgers said that he may have to undergo a rehabilitative assignment in the minors.

“We hope to have him back within a week to 10 days,” Manager Buck Rogers said, “but if he goes long than that, or has a setback, we’d consider a rehab program.”

Grahe is scheduled to play soft-toss before tonight’s game for the second time since June 5 when he was put on the disabled list.