BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT

Joe Maddon, the club’s bench coach and resident computer nerd, has a laptop filled with statistics, tendencies and other tidbits essential to preparing a game plan.

But he says none of it can explain precisely how or why the Angels won 10 of 11 before starting a seven-game trip to Milwaukee and Chicago. Maddon admits he would be better off sometimes discarding much of his information and simply going with his instincts.

“Stats sometimes reflect confidence [on the field], but there are so many intangibles that go with winning,” Maddon said.

Here are a few statistics that help explain the Angels’ recent run:

In the past 12 games, they have averaged 7.7 runs and 13 hits. They have outscored the opposition, 92-59.

During their six-game losing streak before that, they averaged 2.2 runs and 6.8 hits. They were outscored, 51-13.

“We haven’t changed anything,” Maddon said. “We’re doing nothing different. We got fundamentally better, but we’ve stuck with the plan. For whatever reason, we just couldn’t get it done early in the year.”

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Manager Marcel Lachemann will decide today who will pitch the second game of a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox on Monday. He could do worse than hand the ball to rookie right-hander Ryan Hancock.

Hancock pitched a 1-2-3 ninth Thursday and is 2-0 with a 0.00 earned-run average in 8 2/3 innings of relief since being called up from triple-A Vancouver to replace Mark Eichhorn, who went on the disabled list June 6.

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Rex Hudler started at first base to give J.T. Snow a break. Snow entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning. “I’ve been trying to get a day off in there for [Tim] Salmon too, but he’s so damn hot,” Lachemann said. . . . Salmon’s eighth-inning single extending his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games. . . . The game was played with only three umpires. Dale Scott, scheduled to be in Milwaukee, stayed in Baltimore to work the makeup game between the Orioles and Texas Rangers. . . . Reliever Brad Pennington, sidelined by elbow trouble since May 30, made his first rehab start for Vancouver and struck out four in three innings Wednesday. . . . Tough assignment? Saturday’s rally to show support for a new stadium for the Brewers is being organized by local attorney Gerald Boyle. Boyle was Jeffrey Dahmer’s attorney in 1992.