Middle Relief Is Still a Major Pain for the Angels

Where have you gone Bob Patterson?

To the Chicago Cubs, as it happens. And the Angels are left to pay the consequences of not re-signing him. For $500,000, they could have retained his services, but the Autrys still held the Angels’ purse strings last winter and you ought to remember what those days were like.

Now, it’s clear the Angels miss Patterson and the reliable middle relief he provided. With Patterson gone and Mark Eichhorn on the disabled list with shoulder trouble since May 16, the middle innings have been a wasteland of blown leads and expanding earned-run averages.

There has been nobody in the Angel bullpen capable of bridging the gap between the fifth inning and the seventh, eighth and ninth.

Patterson did that in brilliant fashion last season, going 5-2 with a 3.04 ERA in a club-leading 62 appearances. When healthy, Eichhorn has been sound in the middle innings, recording a 1-2 record and 3.75 ERA in 24 innings in 15 games.

His replacements have been atrocious. Take Monday, for instance.

Todd Frohwirth couldn’t have been worse. He gave up five runs and four hits in one-third of an inning in the midst of the Yankees’ eight-run fifth. His ERA is 11.12.

Brad Pennington wasn’t much better. He gave up two runs and one hit, but walked six in 2 2/3 innings. His ERA is 4.50.

Mark Holzemer couldn’t get it done, either. He gave up two runs and two hits in one inning. His ERA is 8.50.

It all added up to a 16-5 Yankee victory at Anaheim Stadium.

“The job [Patterson] did we haven’t had this year,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “You don’t have to be a Phi Beta Kappa to know that.”

Lachemann said that before the Angel bullpen helped turn a tight game into a Yankee rout Monday.

“Frohwirth had to get some guys out and it didn’t work,” Lachemann said after the game.

So perhaps sending disgruntled closer Lee Smith to Cincinnati for middle reliever Chuck McElroy--like Patterson, a left-hander--wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

The Angels certainly hope McElroy will provide some much-needed stability. If the Angels couldn’t persuade teams to give up a starting pitcher for Smith, well, at least they addressed another glaring weakness.

General Manager Bill Bavasi said McElroy will give the Angels “more versatility.” McElroy is expected to be in uniform for Wednesday’s game against the Yankees. Eichhorn, a righty, is expected to return soon, perhaps in time for the weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles.

With starter Mark Langston set to be activated from the disabled list, that means the Angels will probably soon part ways with Frohwirth, Pennington and/or Holzemer.

Lachemann viewed the absence of Eichhorn as a chance for the others to seize his attention, to prove they might be worthy of keeping. He has been disappointed.

“It’s an opportunity to take advantage of,” he said. “Some do. Some don’t.”