BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Anderson Picks Wrong Time to Relax

Rookie left fielder Garret Anderson glides in the outfield and has a smooth, almost effortless swing, but when he coasted on the base paths Saturday the Angels missed their best shot at scoring the tying run in a 5-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

Anderson was on first in the sixth inning when Rex Hudler blooped a double over first baseman Mo Vaughn’s head, driving in Tim Salmon from third to make it 5-4.

Anderson advanced to third on the hit, but when third-base Coach Rick Burleson saw the throw going into second, he waved Anderson home. Anderson missed the sign, though, and pulled up at third, while the throw bounced off Hudler’s back at second.

“I think he just shut it down a little early instead of coming hard,” Burleson said of Anderson. “On a play like that, when the second baseman threw the ball back across the field, you have a chance to sneak in the back door. My gut feeling is he could have made it.

“I waved him [home] but he obviously had different ideas. He made that decision on his own, thinking he couldn’t go any farther. We try to teach the guys to go hard until the ball stops, and in this case, I thought it was a good gamble to send him.”

Anderson, who was picked off first and cost the Angels a run in a 4-1 loss at New York Wednesday, said he simply didn’t notice Burleson. He was stranded at third when Greg Myers grounded out to end the inning.

“I was looking at a different place at the time, not really at him,” Anderson said. “I knew I’d make to third as soon as he hit it, but as far as scoring, I never thought about it.”

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He was the ignition switch to the Angel offense when the team was hitting on all cylinders, but leadoff batter Tony Phillips has not been able to jump-start the Angels during the eight-game losing streak.

Phillips has not reached base in the first inning in all eight losses, and he has opened four of those games with strikeouts. He’s in a 3-for-31 slump, and his strikeout Saturday on a Joe Hudson full-count fastball began a seventh-inning double play--Damion Easley was thrown out at second.

“Two weeks ago I crush that ball--it was on the outside part of the plate, where I like it,” Phillips said. “But now, I can’t hit the outside pitch, the inside pitch, or the pitch up the middle. I’m screwed up. But I’ll work it out. You can only stink for so long.”

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Manager Marcel Lachemann, after spending more than an hour working with struggling starter Brian Anderson in the bullpen before Saturday’s game, said the left-hander would remain in the rotation. Anderson, who has lost his last five decisions and didn’t make it past the second inning of his last game, will start Tuesday in Baltimore.

Center fielder Jim Edmonds, suffering from a strained muscle in his lower back, did not stretch, run, throw or swing a bat Saturday. He said he’ll take another full day off today but might be able to return for Monday’s game at Baltimore.

Edmonds was replaced by rookie Orlando Palmeiro, who had three hits and scored two runs in his first major league start and also made a nice catch of Vaughn’s drive to the wall in center in the sixth.

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Red Sox third baseman Tim Naehring, who had two hits and two walks Saturday, became the second player to reach base eight consecutive times against the Angels this week, following New York Yankee outfielder Bernie Williams. . . . Second baseman Luis Alicea continued to feast on Angel pitching, going two for three Saturday to raise his average against the Angels to .447 (17 for 38) this season. . . . Boston has won six straight and 10 of 13 games from the Angels this season.