DiSarcina Can’t Shrug Off Three Errors in Angel Loss

Angel starter Jarrod Washburn needed some Levine intervention Saturday night, and reliever Al Levine came through, getting out of a fourth-inning, bases-loaded, no-out jam that made Washburn’s pitching line a lot less ugly than it could have been.

Gary DiSarcina had no such help. The Angel shortstop felt shipwrecked in the middle of the infield with no relief in sight, committing three errors in one game for the first time in his career during the Angels’ 5-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers before 28,575 in Edison Field.

“It’s a pretty helpless feeling when you have the ball in your hand and you don’t know how you’re going to get it to first base,” said DiSarcina, who fessed up to having a sore shoulder afterward. “I was flustered a bit. Any time your confidence is dented, that can happen.”

DiSarcina’s confidence wasn’t the only thing dented. So was the back of his right shoulder, where he had a nasty welt after getting hit by a Jamie Navarro pitch Tuesday in Chicago and by a Dave Borkowski pickoff throw to first in Detroit on Aug. 13.

When the normally reliable shortstop’s throws began falling just short of first baseman Mo Vaughn’s glove this past week and one sailed four feet over Vaughn’s head after DiSarcina charged a slow roller in the eighth inning Saturday night, it was obvious something was wrong.

“It feels like I have a dead shoulder,” said DiSarcina, who might need to take a few days off. “But I’ve never taken myself out of the lineup. I always feel there’s some way to get the ball over there.”

He couldn’t on the first play of the game, making a throwing error that wasn’t costly, but his throwing and fielding errors paved the way for two unearned runs in the eighth.

Those helped Detroit load the bases with none out, and the Angels nearly escaped again when second baseman Trent Durrington made a nice play on Gabe Kapler’s grounder and threw home for an out and Kimera Bartee missed a squeeze bunt, catcher Matt Walbeck tagging out Damion Easley in a rundown. But Bartee lined a two-run single to left.

That helped seal the victory for Detroit starter Jeff Weaver, a former Simi Valley High star who shut out the Angels on three hits and struck out seven in seven innings for his first victory since May 27.

Weaver went 13 starts without a victory, notching seven no-decisions and six losses from June 1-Aug. 16. But the movement on his pitches that deserted him for much of the last 2 1/2 months returned Saturday night, as Weaver baffled the Angels with his tailing fastball and sidearm curve.

Detroit took a 1-0 lead in the first when Kapler reached on an infield single, was sacrificed to second, took third on Gregg Jefferies’ long fly ball to center, which Jim Edmonds made an over-the-shoulder catch of, and scored on Washburn’s wild pitch.

Washburn did not allow a run in the second despite giving up two singles to open the inning, but he had no such luck in the fourth after Dean Palmer and Tony Clark opened with singles.

Juan Encarnacion doubled to right-center, scoring Palmer, and walks to Easley and Bill Haselman forced in another run to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead. But Levine got Kapler to pop out, Bartee to strike out and Jefferies to fly out, ending the inning.

“I thought I had pretty good stuff, and then in the fourth inning I blew up,” Washburn said. “I really can’t explain it. . . . I don’t feel any different than last year. I’m not intimidated because I’m in the big leagues. My command is terrible, which is causing me to walk guys, and I’m getting hurt.”