Carew Going to Bat for Hitters

Batting instructor Rod Carew was up until 5:45 a.m. the other day watching videotapes of opposing pitchers and Angel batters. While the rest of late-night America watches Leno and Letterman, Carew is at home or in his hotel room--usually up until 3 a.m. or so--trying to find something that will give his struggling hitters an edge.

“That’s the frustrating part about being a hitting instructor,” Carew said. “You can work and do things in drills and batting practice, the game starts, and they throw everything out and go back to what they were doing.”

What the Angels have been doing lately hasn’t been working. They’ve fallen to 11th in the American League in average (.266) and runs (182), and going into Wednesday night’s game, two of their key hitters, Darin Erstad and Troy Glaus, were mired in horrendous slumps.

Even more disturbing is the fact the Angels have the fourth-highest strikeout total (255) and second-lowest walk total (114) in the league, giving them the fifth-worst strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.24-to-1) in baseball. Only Florida, Montreal, Detroit and Cincinnati are worse.

“I’ve never seen that kind of discrepancy,” third base coach Larry Bowa said. “We’re swinging at a lot of bad pitches.”

They’re also not swinging at enough good pitches.

“I don’t know if they’re guessing and guessing wrong, and that’s what creates it, but I’m not very happy with that,” Carew said. “If a guy throws 120 pitches a game, the pitch he’ll throw most often for strikes is his fastball.

“What is a breaking ball designed to do? To not stay in the hitting zone. If you’re constantly chasing those breaking pitches, you’re lowering the percentage of good pitches you’re swinging at and getting yourself out.”

In addition to his late-night work, Carew is usually at the park every day by 2 p.m. for early batting practice. But instead of hitting on the field, Carew has been administering early batting in the indoor cages.

“I don’t want them to see where the ball is going,” Carew said. “I want them to concentrate on a good swing, not trying to jack the ball. I want them to focus on swinging at good pitches.”

*

The Angels haven’t been able to reward him with many offensive outbursts, but they are appreciative of Carew’s efforts.

“He does a lot of stuff that goes unnoticed,” Erstad said. “He puts in time that no one else does.”

Mo Vaughn talks so much with Carew “that I’m in his back pocket,” he said. “He has a tremendous knowledge of hitting. As a player you have to use that stuff to be successful. You’ve got to listen and talk about it. That’s the only way you get better at this game.”

Manager Terry Collins said he tries to lift the spirits of his hitters, but he defers most batting matters to Carew, a member of the Hall of Fame.

“My 3,000 hits came in Little League,” Collins said. “I’ll let Rod handle the hitting game.”

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Shortstop Gary DiSarcina, continuing to make progress in his recovery from a broken left forearm, has been hitting soft toss, swinging at about 75%, for five days with no setbacks.

It has been seven weeks since a metal plate was surgically attached to the broken bone, and DiSarcina is scheduled to return around the all-star break.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’ TIM BELCHER (2-3, 8.78 ERA)

vs.

ORIOLES’ JASON JOHNSON (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Camden Yards, Baltimore, 4 PDT

TV--Channel 9 Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090)

* Update--Johnson, a 6-foot-6 right-hander who pitched for Tampa Bay last season, will make his Oriole debut after being recalled Tuesday from triple-A Rochester, where he went 4-2 with a 3.65 earned-run average. Chris Pritchett, who arrived from triple-A Edmonton on Wednesday night, will start at first base for the Angels, moving Darin Erstad back to left field. Steve Decker, also recalled from Edmonton on Tuesday, will start at first against Tampa Bay left-handers Tony Saunders on Friday and Wilson Alvarez on Sunday.