His Frustration Is Going Deep

Jim Edmonds limped around the basepaths after slamming a Paul Menhart fastball over the left field fence in the seventh inning of the Angels’ second consecutive blowout loss. In the clubhouse, 30 minutes after the game mercifully ended, Edmonds still limping.

“I’m doing fine,” Edmonds insisted.

Physically, maybe. Mentally, Edmonds is a mess.

Since returning from the disabled list with a strained lower right rib cage injury, Edmonds is nine for 44 with four runs scored, three home runs and eight RBIs. Edmonds has been dropped from the middle of the lineup to seventh, directly in front of catcher Chad Krueter, a .226 hitter.

His average has fallen from .296 to .286, and he has even reverted to watching old tapes of himself at the plate.

“The whole situation is frustrating,” Edmonds said. “I’m not swinging at good pitches and I’m not getting good pitches to hit. Hitting seventh is the least of it. I’m not hitting as well as I can. It’s disappointing.”

Fortunately for Edmonds, he can do more to help his team than simply hit. He proved that again Thursday afternoon, even in a game that was virtually decided by the third inning.

With the game spiraling out of control in the fifth, Edmonds sped after a ball hit into the left-center field gap by Padre catcher John Flaherty. Edmonds didn’t come up with Flaherty’s drive, but he did crash hard into the padded wall trying to catch it.

Not all of the wall is padded, however. Had Edmonds crashed into the wall a foot or so to the left, he would have banged into the steel post that holds up the fence. Edmonds didn’t even touch the ball with his glove, but he still was disappointed in himself.

“I thought I could have caught that one, so I was more determined to catch the second one,” he said.

The second one, which came an inning later, ranks with Edmonds’ spectacular over-the-shoulder grab in Kansas City this season. Edmonds was shading the left-handed batting Steve Finley to right-center, so he had a long way to run when Finley lined the ball into left-center. Running full speed and looking directly into the sun, Edmonds sprawled out on the warning track and caught the ball in front of the 370 sign.

“I was more worried about running into Garret Anderson than the wall,” Edmonds said. “I was just trying to do anything I can. Just because we were losing 9-1 and the sun was in my eyes, I didn’t want to give up a double. My pitcher [Greg Cadaret] is out there working as hard as he can.”