Carpenter Displays His Craftsmanship

The Angels did not face Toronto ace Roger Clemens all season, and they missed 1996 Cy Young Award winner Pat Hentgen during their two-game stop in SkyDome this week, but they couldn’t beat a pair of Blue Jay pitchers named Robert Person and Chris Carpenter.

Carpenter, a 22-year-old rookie who entered with a 1-7 record and 6.84 earned-run average, shoved a three-hitter in the Angels’ faces Tuesday night, leading Toronto to a 2-0 victory before 25,674 and sticking another dagger in Anaheim’s fading playoff hopes.

The Angels have lost 17 of their last 24 games and are now five games behind Seattle in the American League West.

Adding injury to insult, Angel first baseman Darin Erstad left the game in the seventh inning when he hurt his right shoulder diving for Carlos Delgado’s ground ball.

Manager Terry Collins thought the injury was serious. “It could be a weeklong thing,” he said. But Angel athletic trainer Ned Bergert said Erstad merely jammed the shoulder and should be ready for Thursday night’s game against Kansas City in Anaheim.

Angel pitcher Ken Hill was more than ready for the Blue Jays, but his third consecutive superb outing was wasted. The right-hander gave up two runs--one earned--on three hits and struck out a career-high 10 in 7 2/3 innings. In 23 innings of his last three starts, he has given up three earned runs.

He has one victory to show for it.

“That’s all I can do,” said Hill, who consistently hit the inside corner with his fastball and kept his slider and forkball away from right-handed batters. “Sometimes you pitch poorly and give up runs and you win. It’s all part of the game.”

The up-and-down Angel offense, which pounded out 12 hits, including three homers, in Monday night’s 12-10 loss to Toronto, did not advance a runner to third Tuesday night, and only two Angels reached second.

All five Angel baserunners in the first five innings were wiped out by double plays (three times) or caught stealing (twice), and the Angels left one runner on base all game. Carpenter faced 28 batters, one over the minimum.

“We put some runs on the board and don’t pitch, and then we get great pitching and don’t hit,” third baseman Dave Hollins said. “We’re just in a bad funk right now, and we’ve got to get out of it.”

The same could be said for Hollins defensively. He committed his 27th error of the season in the eighth inning, throwing wildly to first on Mariano Duncan’s two-out grounder. That cost the Angels a run when Shawn Green laced a double to right off Angel reliever Mike Holtz for a 2-0 lead.

Hollins made two defensive miscues in Saturday’s 7-5 loss to Detroit, and both were followed by home runs, one a grand slam.

“My first 15 to 18 errors, a lot of them didn’t mean anything,” Hollins said. “But it seems like lately, I’ll make an error and you can bank on a big hit and a couple of runs. Add that to a losing streak and it can be magnified . . . it’s been a tough year out there.”

Carpenter made it even tougher. The right-hander mixed his fastball, forkball, curve and changeup so well that he shattered several Angel bats and rarely gave up a hard-hit ball, let alone a hit.

“You’ve got to give him credit,” Angel second baseman Luis Alicea said. “He pitched a great game. He threw all his pitches for strikes . . . you watch, that guy is going to be good next year.”

Toronto scored in the second inning when Delgado doubled to right and took third on Rich Butler’s first major league hit, a single to left.

Angel left fielder Garret Anderson overthrew the cut-off man, allowing Butler to take second, and Delgado scored on Tom Evans’ grounder to second, a potential double-play ball had Butler been held at first after his hit.