Just Another Typical Night as Angels Lose to Baltimore

As the Angels creep ever closer toward a club record in loses, there are days when it almost seems preordained.

Their starting pitcher gave up only two hits Saturday night, but left in the sixth inning. Their hottest hitter killed three rallies. Their most durable player, at least in years past, spent another day at the hospital.

So there was nothing for the Angels to do but put the 6-3 loss to Baltimore in their bulging sun-will-come-out-tomorrow file.

“It’s important that we play well these last couple weeks,” said Joe Maddon, the Angels’ interim manager. “When the season concludes, the guys can feel good about themselves. They can have a positive things to work on going into next season.”

Then it would best to avoid thinking too much about Saturday night’s game, which was the Orioles’ 10th win in a row but the left the Angels seven losses short of matching the club record 95. The 36,531 at Edison Field saw the reason why again. Rookie pitcher Brian Cooper allowed two hits through 5 1/3 innings, but left trailing 4-2 because he walked five and hit two batters. The Angel offense couldn’t take him off the hook.

If there was one thing the Angels felt they could rely on this season, it was their offense. If there was one area that continually faltered, it was the offense.

Outfielder Garret Anderson drove that point home by not driving runs home Saturday.

In the first, the Angels had scored one run and had the bases loaded with no outs. Anderson flied out. Oriole pitcher Sidney Ponson then slipped out of the inning by striking out Todd Greene and Bret Hemphill.

In the fifth, the Angels had two on with one out. Anderson hit into a double play.

In the seventh, Mo Vaughn’s run-scoring single pulled the Angels to within 4-3. With runners on first and second, Anderson took a called third strike.

All that from a player who came into the game with a 17-game hitting streak, not to mention a .304 batting average and 70 runs batted in on the season.

“I’m sure Garrett wishes it would have turned out differently,” Maddon said. “He had a tough night at the plate, but Garrett is not the type that lets a bad night carry over to the next game.”

Still, getting no production from a player the Angels consider a productive hitter is another reason why the Angels are last in the major leagues in runs.

Throughout spring training, the hot topic was how the Angels would squeeze four outfielders into the line-up each day. Time and punishment--mostly self-inflicted--has made that merely something to reminisce.

“The way this year has gone, that turned out to be the least of our problems,” Anderson said.

Those four, along with free agent Mo Vaughn, were to be the core of the team.

“When you have all five of us out there, that’s a lineup that can score some runs,” Edmonds said.

Of course, the trick has been to have those five out there. Or four of them. Or three of them.

Salmon, who early missed 62 games with a sprained wrist, sat out Saturday night with sore ribs. He had X-rays before the game, with the results negative.

Add that to Edmonds, who missed four months after shoulder surgery, and Vaughn, who hasn’t been 100% since he fell into the first base dugout opening night.

“When we got everyone healthy and in the lineup, you don’t have to depend on just two guys,” Erstad said.