A’s Get a Bead on Angel Rookie

Jarrod Washburn was impressive in winning four of five decisions after being promoted to the big leagues in early June, but Angel coaches were concerned coming out of the All-Star break that opponents might be catching on to the rookie left-hander.

“Not only have teams faced Washburn, they have more scouting reports on him, so he’s not going to surprise anyone anymore,” Manager Terry Collins said. “So it becomes a matter of execution, making pitches.”

Washburn didn’t do much of either Monday night in the Angels’ 5-2 loss to the Oakland A’s before a Los Angeles Clipper-like crowd of 8,401 at the Oakland Coliseum.

The 23-year-old gave up five two-out runs on eight hits--five for extra bases--in six innings, and several Oakland outs were rocketed to diving Angel infielders and sprinting or sliding outfielders.

Washburn’s worst pitch was a fifth-inning fastball to Kevin Mitchell that was so fat it was a candidate for liposuction. The A’s designated hitter belted the belt-high offering far beyond the wall in left-center for a three-run home run that turned a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 Oakland lead.

“I knew as soon as I threw that one it wasn’t going to hit my spot,” said Washburn, who is 4-2 with a 4.06 earned-run average. “I was just hoping he wouldn’t get all of it. He did.”

That was the ballgame. Oakland center fielder Rickey Henderson made a leaping catch of Cecil Fielder’s drive to the wall with two on in the eighth to preserve the victory for right-hander Mike Oquist, who gave up two runs on seven hits in seven innings, but the game turned on the pitch to Mitchell. “In a game like tonight, one mistake was too many,” Washburn said.

When you don’t have a 95-m.p.h. fastball or a vicious slider or a changeup that is 20 m.p.h. slower than your fastball, your margin for error is slim. Washburn relies on command, on moving pitches around the strike zone and changing speeds, and he didn’t do enough of that Monday night.

“The way he pitches, he has to stay down in the zone to be effective,” Collins said. “Maybe he can throw some strikes up and in, but the balls that are up and away are going to get hit.”

Washburn escaped a second-inning jam by striking out Mike Blowers and Brian Lesher and getting Miguel Tejada to line out to diving shortstop Gary DiSarcina with runners on second and third, but his luck ran out in the fourth, fifth and sixth.

Blowers drove a two-out pitch in the fourth over the head of center fielder Jim Edmonds, who appeared to overrun the ball a bit and could not make an over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track.

Lesher then lined a run-scoring double to the gap in right-center, barely out of the reach of right fielder Garret Anderson, to pull Oakland to within 2-1.

Bip Roberts started another two-out rally in the fifth with a walk, Ben Grieve singled to center, and Mitchell followed with his second homer of the season, both off the Angels.

Blowers opened the sixth with a popup to shallow right. Fielder, the Angel first baseman, went back and second baseman Justin Baughman ran over, but Baughman lost it in the twilight and Fielder couldn’t make the catch, the ball dropping for a double.

Washburn struck out Lesher and Tejada, but A.J. Hinch singled to center for a 5-2 lead. Allen Watson, making his first appearance since May 23 and his first relief appearance since May 19, 1997, gave up two hits while pitching a scoreless seventh and eighth.

“It was good to get out there,” said Watson, who was activated off the disabled list Monday but unhappy about his demotion to the bullpen. “It’s a whole different game out there, warming up, stopping, warming up again. I’m going to have to adjust to it.”

The Angels scored in the second on singles by Tim Salmon and Fielder, Anderson’s RBI double and Matt Walbeck’s RBI groundout, but an unsuccessful squeeze play prevented a third run.

With Anderson coming from third, Baughman bunted right back to Oquist, who charged in, fielded the ball and scooped a throw to Hinch in time for the A’s catcher to swipe a tag on Anderson.

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* WATSON TO BULLPEN

Coming off the disabled list, Allen Watson was unhappy to be shifted to a relief role. C6