Bullpen Troubles Leave Angels Blue

The Angels’ latest casualty was Manager Terry Collins, though it was mental duress not physical pain.

His stress didn’t come from the fact his starting pitchers had been used for target practice recently or from the continuing saga of outfielder Tim Salmon’s injured foot. Collins was concerned about what the Angels should be doing in the face of adversity.

“I know we’re banged up, but it hurts when you don’t win games you’re supposed to win,” Collins said. “You can’t get those back. They’re gone.”

Another opportunity was wasted in a 6-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays Wednesday. A crowd of 17,392 at Edison Field saw the Angels add ineffectiveness to injury. Their bullpen, which has been solid until this week, blew a lead for the third consecutive game.

“You can say it’s a long season, but these games in April and May are just as important as the ones in July and August,” Collins said. “We lost three games in a row we could have won. Those games will come back to bite you.”

Once again, it was the Angel bullpen that had no teeth.

In the last three games, Collins has used eight relievers, who have mainly managed to fan the flames. Shigetoshi Hasegawa was the one burned Wednesday, as he gave up a two-run homer to Shawn Green in the seventh, tying the score, 5-5.

Mike Stanley led off the eighth with a double when a fan reached over the rail in right field to catch the ball. Greg Cadaret replaced Hasegawa and threw a wild pitch, allowing pinch runner Juan Samuel to get to third. He scored on a grounder by Tony Fernandez.

“Somebody has to give us innings,” Collins said. “Somebody has to make some pitches and get us to the next inning. We can’t just keep running three pitchers out there every inning.”

Omar Olivares, making his second start in place of the injured Jack McDowell (elbow), gave Collins six innings. He gave up three runs, two on home runs. Those seemed less painful than the one-hopper by Green that bounced off Olivares’ knee in the fifth. It was the third time in a week that an Angel pitcher has stopped a ball with something other than a glove.

Chuck Finley took a line drive off his elbow last Friday and Allen Watson had one ricochet off his heel Monday.

“Omar needed to get us late into the game where we could pick and choose with our bullpen,” Collins said.

Unfortunately, Collins chose to use his bullpen.

“You can’t just point a finger at the pitching,” Collins said. “We had opportunities to score. We didn’t get it done.”

The Angels had a runner on second with no outs in the sixth. They had a runner on first with no outs in the seventh. They not only didn’t score, but five of their outs were strikeouts.

These on the field problems were added to the Angels’ off the field casualty list.

Things have gotten to the point where the guys filling in for injured players are getting injured. Outfielder Damon Mashore, who has hit .302 since Salmon was hurt, jammed his shoulder sliding into second base Tuesday and will need at least two days off.

“If another team thinks we’re feeling sorry for ourselves, they’ll come in here and step on our necks in a heartbeat,” shortstop Gary DiSarcina said.

DiSarcina singled home the Angels’ first run, tying the score, with a single in the second inning. By the time the inning was over, the Angels had five runs.

Garret Anderson ripped an Erik Hanson pitch to center field. Shannon Stewart and the ball arrived at the fence at the same time, only Stewart didn’t bounce off it as far.

The ball rolled back toward the infield, with DiSarcina and Darin Erstad scoring. Stewart tried to get up but collapsed.

Jim Edmonds followed with a two-run homer to right to make it 5-1. Edmonds also showed he was better than Stewart at chasing down long fly balls.

Stewart crushed an Olivares pitch to center in the third. Edmonds first turned left, then right before making a one-handed catch on the warning track.

“I try not to worry about injuries,” Edmonds said. “Someone always steps in and picks up where we left off.”

The Angel bullpen did Wednesday.