Salmon Powers Up Offense With His Home Run in Third

It’s September and Tim Salmon is still standing. On one foot, to be sure, but he’s still out there.

“We were just trying to get to the All-Star game,” Manager Terry Collins said. “Now we’re in September.”

The torn ligament in Salmon’s left foot continues to cause him considerable pain and could give way at any moment. But he is still in there, taking his hacks.

“It’s a Catch-22 thing,” Salmon said. “The better I do, the worse it feels. If I get two or three hits, that means I’m doing more running. It causes more inflammation.”

Don’t get Salmon wrong, he’s perfectly happy to grin--sometimes ear-to-ear--and bear it, as he did Wednesday.

Salmon got to jog in the third inning, after bouncing a home run off the fake rocks beyond the center-field fence at Edison Field. It broke a 2-2 tie during the Angels’ 10-8 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

His home run seemed to wake up Angel hitters, who have slumbered of late. They had not scored an earned run in 22 innings before Wednesday. They had not hit a home run in 41 innings before Salmon belted Frank Rodriguez’s pitch to get a nine-run inning rolling.

“Tim hit the ball hard,” Collins said. “When he swings good, we roll.”

The Angels had tied the score, 2-2, on a Jim Edmonds’ single. Salmon followed with a 422-foot bomb and did a leisurely trot around the bases. The Angels finished with nine hits in the inning. They haven’t had more than nine hits in any game on this homestand.

The Angels, for once, were so efficient at the plate that Salmon even had to do a little running in the third. He was walked intentionally after Edmonds doubled home two runs, then did a first-to-third sprint on Garret Anderson’s single.

The home run Wednesday was a team-high 25th and gave Salmon 79 runs batted in, tying him with Darin Erstad for the team lead. Salmon, who is hitting .301 on the season, is hitting .400 with six home runs and 23 RBIs in his last 33 games.

“It’s amazing, but if Tim has a big September, he will hit .300 and have around 30 home runs and 90 RBIs,” Collins said. “That is close to his normal numbers.”

Collins and the Angels would certainly like a big September from Salmon, as they battle Texas for the AL West title. They still have five games left with the Rangers and Salmon is a .415 lifetime hitter against them.

Salmon was injured while rounding first base after hitting a home run against Baltimore on April 22. He was hitting .279 with seven home runs and had 13 RBIs, a considerable improvement on his usual April. The injury sidelined Salmon for 14 games and forced him to designated hitter spot.

Of course, that will change should the Angels make the World Series--there are no designated hitters for games in the National League park.

“Tim will have to play right field,” Collins said. “I can’t have him sitting on the bench.”