Angel Offense Still Running on Near-Empty

Third base coach Larry Bowa could file desertion charges against the Angels. Game after game, Bowa stands in the coaching box, his hands in his back pockets or on his hips, or his arms folded across his chest.

He has been abandoned by the players he is supposed to serve, the ones he is paid to guide home. If not for the third base umpire or the opposing third baseman, Bowa would have no one to talk to most of the time.

“Nobody’s coming down there, man, nobody,” Bowa said after the Angels lost to the San Francisco Giants, 6-2, before 11,721 in 3Com Park on Tuesday. “You just keep waiting for guys to do what they’re supposed to do, and they’re not doing it. I’ve never seen a team go through this kind of spell.”

This is how far the Angels have fallen: Their only two runs Tuesday were knocked in by a guy who is paid to pitch, knuckleballer Steve Sparks, whose two-run, game-tying double in the fifth inning was the first hit of his career.

That gave Sparks one more run batted in than Mo Vaughn, who is being paid $80 million over six years to drive in runs, has in his last eight games. And Sparks’ one hit equals the number of hits second baseman Randy Velarde has in his last 23 at-bats.

The Angels managed only five hits Tuesday against a pitcher who hadn’t won a game since April 24, left-hander Shawn Estes, who went seven innings and struck out four before giving way to relievers John Johnstone and Robb Nen.

You thought pitching and defense wins championships? The Angels are second in the American League in earned-run average (4.36) and first in fielding percentage (.985), yet they are in danger of being buried in the West, falling eight games behind Texas going into the Rangers’ game against the Dodgers on Tuesday night.

The Angels are 12th in the league in batting (.260), 11th in runs (260), last in stolen bases (23) and last in on-base percentage (.318). They have 363 strikeouts, compared to 153 walks. They have scored more than four runs in only two of their last 15 games.

“You need to score runs in our league,” Manager Terry Collins said. “It’s an offensive league.”

Collins promised some kind of lineup shake-up today.

“He’s got to work with what he’s got, but what are you going to do?” said Vaughn, who left Tuesday’s game in the sixth because his sore left ankle got stiff. “There’s not a lot you can do.”

Perhaps the Angels, as a group, are trying to do too much.

“Everyone’s trying harder and harder to get hits, and that’s disabling in itself,” said Tim Salmon, who has been sidelined since May 3 because of a sprained left wrist. “We have guys trying to carry the load, Mo’s trying to play hurt, and we just can’t seem to get anything going.”

Shortstop Andy Sheets, who has four hits in his last 42 at-bats, says the Angels--without Salmon, Jim Edmonds and Gary DiSarcina--are pressing.

“Each guy wants to hit a nine-run home run, and that’s not going to happen,” Sheets said. “We’re trying to do too much instead of just relaxing and letting it flow.”

Sheets was involved in the key play Tuesday when, with runners on first and third in a 2-2 game in the seventh, he failed to glove Armando Rios’ sharply hit two-hopper up the middle, a play that was ruled a single but one Sheets thought he could have made.

Stan Javier and Rich Aurilia followed with RBI singles off relievers Scott Schoeneweis and Mark Petkovsek, as the Giants took a 5-2 lead. These days, a three-run lead against the Angels seems as commanding as a 13-run lead.

“I don’t like this; I’m not used to this,” Vaughn said. “We’ve got to shape up our mental approach--that’s what the game is all about. If you’re doing something offensively that’s making outs, you have to switch your thinking, and until we do that as a team, we’re going to struggle. . . .

“No good hitter has ever gone up to the plate without a plan or an approach and been successful. We’ve had enough pitching. We’re just not putting enough offensive pressure on people.”

ERSTAD GETS REST: The outfielder, whose average has fallen to .227, had played every inning until Tuesday. Page 6

CUBS RALLY: Tyler Houston’s three-run home run in the ninth inning lifts the Cubs to a 5-3 victory in Arizona. Page 4