Mariners Have Homer-Field Advantage

The Angels hit the halfway point of 1999 with a 10-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners, who hammered a club-record seven homers before 36,987 in Edison Field on Monday night, another in a long line of depressing Angel evenings that did nothing to shake them from their state of suspended animation.

They don’t think they’re out of the American League West race, yet the Angels are considering trading ace Chuck Finley to a contender, a white flag if there ever was one. Their 9 1/2-game deficit is not insurmountable, but they don’t have the weapons to put more than a dent in the Rangers’ lead.

That much was made clear last week when Texas, behind the potent bats of Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro, demolished the injury-depleted, triple-A-looking Angels in a three-game sweep by a combined score of 32-5.

“Offensively, we can’t match up with Texas right now,” left fielder Darin Erstad said. “I think we have better pitching when our regular guys are healthy, but offensively, not many teams can match up with the Rangers.

“If we had all our guys we could stick with them, but they have a lot of all-stars, and when they get a good pitch to hit they crush it, they don’t miss it. They have great at-bats. We have a lot of young guys, myself included, who don’t have that command of the strike zone.”

Two cases in point: Erstad and Todd Greene both struck out in their first three at-bats Monday night, Greene swinging wildly at pitches well out of the strike zone.

Erstad believes the only way the Angels, minus Tim Salmon and Jim Edmonds, can compete is if they “manufacture runs any way we can. . . . we have to move runners over, take walks, go deep into counts. We have to do the little things to scratch and claw for runs.”

They did just the opposite Monday night, their baserunning gaffe turning a potential rally in the second into another scoreless inning. Steve Decker singled and Troy Glaus walked, and after Greene’s strikeout, Matt Walbeck singled sharply to right.

Decker is the slowest runner on the team--even slower than Mo Vaughn with an injured ankle--but Glaus must have thought Rickey Henderson was ahead of him on the basepaths. As Decker pulled into third, with no intention of scoring, Glaus steamed around second and headed for third.

Glaus slammed on the breaks about 20 feet beyond the second-base bag, but he was easy prey for Seattle first baseman David Segui, who took John Mabry’s throw from the outfield and nailed Glaus at second. Gary DiSarcina struck out to end the inning.

As for that pitching Erstad mentioned: it’s not healthy. Tim Belcher and Ken Hill are on the disabled list, so the Angels started Shigetoshi Hasegawa Monday night and will go with minor league call-up Mike Fyhrie tonight.

Hasegawa’s first start since 1997 may be his last of 1999 after the right-hander gave up as many home runs (three) in 2 1/3 innings as he did in 40 relief innings this season.

Ken Griffey Jr. homered off the right-field foul pole in the first, his 28th of the season and 378th of his career, which moved him beyond the halfway point to Hank Aaron’s record 755 homers.

Edgar Martinez added a two-run homer in the first and a two-run shot in the ninth, Alex Rodriguez homered in the third and fifth, Russ Davis homered in the fourth and Mabry homered in the seventh, meaning that in the past seven home games, the Angels have been outhomered, 17-1.

Seattle starter Jeff Fassero blanked the Angels on three singles in eight innings, striking out 10. Yes, that’s the same Jeff Fassero who entered with a 3-8 record, 7.21 earned-run average and has given up a major league-leading 27 homers.

Which brings us back to Finley.

“What does that say about our situation--are we out of it? Do we have a chance?” Salmon said of the trade speculation surrounding Finley. “My standpoint is you never give up. Shoot, you saw what happened to us in 1995 [when the Angels blew an 11-game lead in the final two months].

“Texas is still due for a long, hot summer. They’ve missed the injury bug, so maybe they’re due there, too. Maybe Jim and I can come back and we can get hot for a month, and that will make a difference.”

Then again, maybe not.