A Tough Start, Great Ending for DiSarcina

Gary DiSarcina, the Angels’ usually sure-handed shortstop, committed an error on the first ball hit by the Texas Rangers on Saturday night.

A bad omen for the Angels, this was not.

DiSarcina atoned for his early mistake--and then some--by going five for five with four runs batted in to lead the Angels’ 18-6 shellacking of the Rangers before 46,289 at the Ballpark in Arlington.

The blowout pulled the Angels to within half a game of first-place Texas in the American League West.

“My day didn’t start off too well,” DiSarcina said after his first five-hit game, which included a triple and a double.

“But it’s weird how this game works out sometimes. I boot the first ball that’s put into play, they scored the tying run because of it and I felt I let the team down. Then all of a sudden I had a career night.”

This was billed as a key four-game series between the top two teams in the AL West, but the Angels have made a mockery of it so far by whipping the Rangers, 5-1, Friday night and ripping them for a season-high 21 hits, including a team-record eight doubles, but no homers, Saturday night.

Rookie left-hander Jarrod Washburn, making his third major league start, slithered out of a bases-loaded jam in the first but went on to pitch seven strong innings, giving up three runs on five hits and inducing nine infield pop-ups, to improve to 2-0.

Jim Edmonds had four hits, three of them doubles, three RBIs and four runs. Garret Anderson added three hits and two RBIs to help the Angels, who have won 12 of their last 13 games despite numerous injuries and have ace Chuck Finley starting the third game of the series against the Rangers tonight.

“It’s definitely important to show the Rangers that we’re not going to let injuries affect us,” DiSarcina said.

“You can’t go against the team you’re chasing and have bad body language or a look like you’re a beaten club. You’ve got to keep playing hard.”

The Angels probably would have been happy with a split of this series, but now that they have won the first two games, their mentality has changed.

“You don’t want to say we’ve won two, let’s leave and be happy,” Anderson said. “You want to try to win as many games as you can. They all count. You can’t give any of them away.”

Left-handed pitchers haven’t taken many away from the Rangers, combining for a 2-9 record and 8.44 earned-run average against Texas going into Saturday night. The Rangers also had the league’s best batting average (.349) against left-handers, but that didn’t deter Washburn.

He struck out Will Clark with the bases loaded in the first and, after walking Mike Simms to force in a run, he got Bill Haselman to pop to third on a 3-and-0 pitch.

“I was a little surprised, and very thankful, that he swung at that 3-0 pitch,” Washburn said. “That made me happy.”

So did the Angel offense, which included at least one hit from every starter and one each from reserves Craig Shipley and Orlando Palmeiro.

“Eighteen runs,” Washburn said. “You can’t argue with that.”

It has been quite a big league indoctrination for Washburn. His first start, against Kansas City June 2, was marred by two bench-clearing brawls and 12 ejections.

In his second start, against Colorado last Sunday night, Angel second baseman Justin Baughman suffered a concussion and several cuts around his face when he was struck by a line drive.

Then Saturday night, the Angels scored a season-high 18 runs behind him.

“I know they’ve been wild games, but I’m having a great time and we’re winning,” Washburn said. “I’m not going to complain.”

Saturday night’s game didn’t get wild until the fifth inning, when the Angels scored seven runs to turn a 2-1 lead into a 9-1 rout. DiSarcina singled to open the attack, which included Edmonds’ three-run double and Matt Walbeck’s two-run double, and DiSarcina capped it with an RBI double.

The Angels added three runs in each of the sixth, eighth and ninth innings.

“But as easy as we scored tonight, they could do the same thing to us [tonight],” Edmonds said. “They’re a good team. They’re not gonna say, ‘Geez, they beat us up’ and be demoralized.”