Angels Just Can’t Stop Struggling

It’s always something with these Angels, who lost to the lowly Detroit Tigers, 8-3, Tuesday night at Anaheim Stadium.

One hundred and one games down, 61 to go. Figuring them out is still a chore.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. The Angels were pegged as inconsistent underachievers quite some time ago. It’s just that you never know which part of their game is going to fail.

When the Angels hit well, they can’t seem to pitch. When they pitch well, they can’t seem to hit.

Tuesday, former Angel center fielder Chad Curtis hit a 3-and-1 pitch from reliever Mike James over the left-field fence to give Detroit a 4-3 lead in the ninth.

James had given up only a lead-off single to Melvin Nieves in the eighth until Curtis hit his 10th homer this season to spark a five-run Tiger inning. It was Curtis’ first home run in 68 at-bats against his former team.

Right-hander Shawn Boskie turned in another solid start, but left with the Angels and Tigers tied, 3-3, after six innings.

Facing possibly the worst staff in major league history, the Angels simply could not land a knockout blow to better support Boskie.

They left two runners on base in the fourth, three in the fifth, three in the sixth and two in the seventh in a mid-game run of futility.

Monday, they managed only four hits in a 1-0 victory over Detroit’s Omar Olivares, perhaps the ace of a Tiger staff that could break the major league record for the highest earned-run average.

Detroit went into Tuesday with a 6.77 ERA, higher than the 6.70 record set by the 1930 Philadelphia Phillies. But the Tigers looked like the Atlanta Braves against the anemic Angels Monday and Tuesday.

The Angels had hoped to get so much more against the Tigers, who have the worst record in the majors. They know time is short.

“I think it’s time,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “There is time. Those of us who went through all of that last year know it’s possible. But we’ve not going to catch anybody playing like we are. They’re not going to come back to you. The only way to do it is win a lot more than you lose.

“It’s probably going to take 90 wins (to win the division). We’ve got to win 42 out of the next 60 games. It’s not impossible, but we’ve got to get on a pretty good run.

“We did it last year.”

Bolstering their lackluster starting rotation would be one way to kickstart the Angels’ stretch drive. So far, however, they haven’t been able to swing a deal to acquire more pitching.

Left fielder Garret Anderson’s name has been most often mentioned as possible trade bait, but there have been no takers yet.

Anderson’s play hasn’t exactly been awe-inspiring this season. His easy-going manner and slow-moving gait in the field can easily be mistaken for a lackadaisical attitude.

He seems to go about his business too quietly for his own good sometimes, always saying he “doesn’t want to get too high or too low,” an old cliche many associate with dispassionate play.

Anderson’s performance Tuesday did nothing to dispel those notions. He was easily caught stealing in the second inning and missplayed what looked to be a catchable fly ball by Fausto Cruz in the fifth inning.

On Cruz’s drive, Anderson seemed to jog toward the fence, sprinted for a bit, then eased back perhaps afraid of crashing into the chain-link bullpen gate. It might have been an easier play if the ball had been hit to the padded outfield fence instead.

No matter, Anderson was in position to catch the ball but didn’t. Certainly, he has made more difficult catches near the fence in the past.

Cruz later scored on Travis Fryman’s run-scoring single that gave the Tigers the lead, 2-1.

But Anderson also had two hits, including a run-scoring single into left field with the bases loaded to give the Angels a 3-2 lead in the fifth.

Fryman had given Tiger starter C.J. Nitkowski a 1-0 lead with a run-scoring single in the first inning.

Rex Hudler’s bases-empty homer tied the score, 1-1, in the third. It was his 13th homer this year, five more than his previous major league high set in 1994.