Phillips Ponders Uncertain Future

Tony Phillips realizes he’s probably down to his final 16 games in an Angel uniform, but even though his future figures to be elsewhere, it doesn’t make losing any easier. It’s especially tough when you score 10 runs and lose one day (12-10) and then give up only two runs and lose again (2-0) the next.

“It’s not life and death, but it really seems like it sometimes,” Phillips said. “We lost two games in Toronto we should’ve won, but that’s the way it is in baseball and life. No matter how hard you try, you don’t always get the results you’re after.

“All you can do is play hard and see what happens, but it’s still hard to take.”

Phillips has at least one hit in 18 of 19 games since an arbitration panel reinstated him on Aug. 20--the Angels suspended him after his arrest for alleged cocaine possession--but he was out taking early batting practice Thursday afternoon.

“That’s the reason I’m still playing,” said Phillips, in his 15th major league season. “Just improving the hack.”

What does he think about his chances of returning to the Angels next season?

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have an opinion on that,” he said, smiling, “but it’s not worth talking about now.”

*

How hard were the two losses in Toronto for Angel Manager Terry Collins to accept?

“[General Manager] Billy [Bavasi] called me in Toronto and asked how I was doing,” Collins said. “I told him, ‘Well, I’m on the 24th floor of my hotel and my windows open.’ Luckily, they were so little I couldn’t fit through them.”

*

Bavasi and Doug DeCinces, advisor to the Angels’ first-round pick, UCLA infielder Troy Glaus, met for the first time in more than a month Wednesday night. The Angels have offered Glaus, the third player chosen overall, $1.9 million to sign. If he attends the first day of classes at UCLA on Sept. 22, the Angels lose rights to him.

*

For the second time in four days, first baseman Darin Erstad had to prove in batting practice that he was healthy enough to play.

Erstad jammed his already sore right shoulder diving for a ground ball Tuesday in Toronto and then aggravated the injury again later in the game while swinging at a changeup from Blue Jay starter Chris Carpenter. But he swung the bat well enough before Thursday night’s game for Collins to include him in the starting lineup.