Sprained Wrist Sidelines Salmon

Tim Salmon takes pride in his outfield slide-and-catch maneuver, so much so that “I brag I can never break my wrist doing that,” he said.

The Angel right fielder nearly swallowed those words Monday, spraining his left wrist while attempting to catch a sinking line drive. The injury could sideline him the rest of the week.

There could also be long-term implications, and those might be even less palatable than missing four or five games.

“The bottom hand is everything when you swing, and this may be sore the rest of the year,” said Salmon, who played most of 1998 with a severe foot injury. “With a wrist injury, you can get into all kinds of bad habits with your swing.”

Salmon is batting .347 with seven homers and 25 runs batted in, “and the one thing we are not going to do is try to change this guy’s swing,” Manager Terry Collins said.

So, the Angels will be cautious with their cleanup batter. He did not swing Tuesday, and if his wrist is still sore today or Thursday, he’ll undergo an MRI test.

“I don’t want to be pessimistic; let’s get the swelling down and go from there,” Salmon said. “But at the same time, there’s five months left in the season and my wrists are everything. . . . If I miss four or five games of a full season, I’ll be fine with that.”

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Closer Troy Percival said he “didn’t have his fastball” Saturday night, when he gave up two homers and five runs in the ninth inning of an 8-5 loss to Chicago, which raises a question:

If a reliever breezes through the eighth inning, as Shigetoshi Hasegawa did Saturday, and Percival didn’t feel 100%, would Collins want Percival to notify him before making the decision to go to his closer?

“In the right situation, if any relief pitcher didn’t feel very good on a certain night, my bullpen coach should know,” Collins said. “But would Troy ever say he didn’t feel good? No. So I had no reservations at all making that decision.”

A waitress who served Collins breakfast Sunday in Seal Beach did. “The girl waiting my table said I should have left Shige in,” Collins said. “I told her, ‘Where the heck were you last night? That’s an easy decision on Sunday.’ Of course, if I left Shige in and he blew the lead, she would have said, ‘Why didn’t you go to Percival?’ ”

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Hasegawa was unavailable Tuesday night because, according to Collins, he was suffering from “gastronomical abnormalities.” . . . X-rays were negative on Tiger shortstop Deivi Cruz, who was hit in the left elbow by a pitch from Ken Hill.

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Tiger pitcher Dave Mlicki, who allowed one run on five hits in seven innings Tuesday, has given up only five earned runs in 22 1/3 innings for a 2.01 ERA since being acquired by Detroit from the Dodgers in a five-player deal April 16. “He hit all his spots and kept us off-balance,” Angel catcher Matt Walbeck said. “He didn’t overpower us, but he got the ground ball and the popup when he needed to.” . . . The Tigers, who snapped a five-game losing streak Tuesday night, are 7-3 at home, they’ve given up 17 runs in 10 home games, and their pitching staff has a 1.58 ERA in Tiger Stadium, compared with 6.72 on the road. . . . The Detroit bullpen hasn’t given up a run in 18 2/3 home innings. . . . Angel starter Hill’s three hit-batters was one shy of the club and American League record.

TODAY

ANGELS’ STEVE SPARKS (0-3, 5.20 ERA)

vs.

TIGERS’ JEFF WEAVER (3-1, 2.45 ERA)

Tiger Stadium, Detroit, 4 PDT

Radio--KIK-FM (94.3), XPRS (1050).

* Update--Tiger first baseman Tony Clark, hitless in his previous 15 at-bats and one for 17 lifetime against Hill, did not start Tuesday night, but he entered the game in the seventh inning and singled to right field against Hill. Sparks is winless in five starts but has pitched well in his last two, giving up one earned run and 10 hits in 13 1/3 innings. Weaver, a first-round pick from Fresno State and a product of Simi Valley High School, was recalled one week into season and had made four excellent starts.