Angels Are Pushed to Breaking Point by Cleveland Win

Chili Davis calmly walked to the corner of the Angels’ dugout Sunday afternoon, lifted his right knee high into the air, and angrily smashed the bat over it, watching the bat snap like a toothpick.

“It hurt like hell,” Davis said, “but I wasn’t going to rub it. I wasn’t going to give anyone that satisfaction.

“The way we hit this weekend, we gave those guys enough satisfaction to last a season. This game has already made me bald, it’s not going to give me ulcers.”

Davis’ moment of rage exemplified the Angels’ disgust, losing 2-1 to the Cleveland Indians, and making yet another rookie pitcher look like the second coming of Bob Feller.

Albie Lopez, residing at double-A Canton-Akron when he was called up Sunday morning, put on a big league uniform and threw 7 1/3 shutout innings against the Angels for his first career victory. The Angels, who were shut out Saturday by Jeff Mutis, failed to score this weekend against two pitchers with less than two months of major league experience.

“Hey, I feel bad enough already,” said Davis, who’s batting .083 the last eight games. “The thing that really tees me off is that Junior Ortiz and Felix Fermin got more hits in this series than I did.

“You talk about guilt.”

The Angels’ anemic offense was responsible once again for ruining a stellar pitching performance, this time by Mark Langston (9-4). Langston gave up three hits, all of them during Cleveland’s two-run third inning, but it was enough to result in his fifth consecutive winless start.

The Angels’ drought of 20 scoreless innings finally ended on Tim Salmon’s leadoff homer in the ninth against reliever Jeremy Hernandez. The crowd of 31,330 started to grow restless when Manager Mike Hargrove couldn’t find a reliever able to throw a strike.

Three Cleveland relievers walked batters, and suddenly the Angels had the bases loaded and one out. Shortstop Gary DiSarcina needed only a single to wipe out eight innings of misery. Instead, he hit a sharp grounder to Fermin, who stepped on second and thew to first base for the Angels’ fifth double play of the game.

“They tried like hell to give us the ballgame,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said, “and we still couldn’t do anything with it. I don’t know if they’re throwing that good or we’re that (horrible), but I’ve got my ideas. We’re just in a mental funk right now.

“It’s one thing not to be hitting, but our approach isn’t good, either. That’s what really perturbs me. We’ve got guys drawing big blanks at the plate, guys changing their whole approach, and I’m talking about two guys in particular.”

Rodgers vowed to make lineup changes beginning today, toying with the idea of temporarily benching center fielder Chad Curtis and moving Damion Easley higher in the lineup. Rodgers didn’t want to announce any decision out of anger Sunday, but it’s no secret that the prolonged slumps of Curtis and first baseman J.T. Snow have drawn his wrath.

Curtis has been relatively unproductive for the last six weeks, batting only .223 since his three-game suspension ended June 11, with only four hits his last 29 at-bats. Snow, who’s batting .188 since the first 15 games of the season, now has gone two consecutive games without hitting the ball out of the infield.

“I can’t overemphasize too much that (Luis) Polonia and Snow are two guys who have to make it go at top, and that’s not happening,” Rodgers said. “And you look at a guy like J.T., and he’s still pressing. His confidence has left, and he hasn’t been able to make the adjustments since. There are still a lot of questions that he hasn’t answered.”

The Angels (44-46), scoring in only four of their 36 innings during the four-game series--with the heart of their order batting .111--at least were able to find comfort that they ended one ugly streak before leaving Cleveland. For the first time in 15 innings, they actually were able to advance a baserunner to third, thanks to Ron Tingley’s leadoff double in the sixth.

“It’s been a pretty lonely two days,” Angel third base coach Ken Macha said. “The fans were getting on me pretty good. They were saying, ‘Why are you even going out there, you’re just wasting space.’ What really hurt was that the guy who was yelling the loudest was wearing a cap from my alma mater--the University of Pittsburgh.”