Erstad Cranks Angel Offense

It will take more than three nights of good at-bats for Darin Erstad to declare a complete recovery from his disastrous 1999 season, but the Angel left fielder has started 2000 in a groove that is reminiscent of his torrid first half of 1998, when he hit .313 with 18 home runs and 59 runs batted in.

Erstad tied a career high with five RBIs on four hits--a home run, two doubles and a single--and scored three runs to lead the Angels to a 12-6 pummeling of the New York Yankees before 24,560 in Edison Field, salvaging the final game of a three-game series and giving Mike Scioscia his first victory as a big league manager.

Erstad’s outburst improved his average to .643 (nine for 14) and made a winner of Scott Schoeneweis, the Angel left-hander who gave up five runs on 10 hits in six innings but didn’t walk a batter in his first major league start.

“If we keep getting on base, I’ll take my chances with Mo [Vaughn], Tim [Salmon] and Garret [Anderson] coming up,” Erstad said. “We have to do our job, Adam [Kennedy, No. 2 batter] and me. We have to get on base, set the table.”

Erstad was a few utensils short of a place setting last season. He’s supposed to be the catalyst, the ignition to the Angel offense, but the leadoff batter spent 1999 stuck in neutral, idling his way through a miserable season in which he hit .253 with 13 home runs and 53 RBIs.

Even worse, his on-base percentage, because of a career-high 101 strikeouts and only 47 walks, was .308, a good 50 points below that of an average major league leadoff hitter.

Whether it was a mechanical flaw in his swing, he was pressing at the plate or he couldn’t handle certain breaking pitches--or all of the above--Erstad said there wasn’t a day in 1999 that he felt comfortable in the batter’s box.

But he had a sense this spring, when he hit .370 with two homers and 12 RBIs in 23 games, that his old hack was back.

“This is the best I’ve felt since 1997,” Erstad said in March. “I know I’ve corrected my swing. I can just feel it.”

Erstad felt it in the first inning Wednesday night, when he turned viciously on David Cone slider and ripped it into the right-center field bleachers for the ninth leadoff home run of his career.

He felt it again in the second, when he lashed a two-out RBI double off Cone into the right-center field gap to give the Angels a 3-0 lead.

He felt it again in the third when he highlighted the Angels’ six-run rally with a two-run double down the right-field line off reliever Allen Watson.

And he felt it in the seventh when he grounded a single to center off Todd Erdos and scored on Kennedy’s RBI double to right, which capped an evening of clutch hitting in which the Angels went eight for 14 with two outs and runners in scoring position.

“Darin has been locked in for a long time,” Scioscia said. “He’s a very intelligent hitter who has an idea of what the pitcher is trying to do to him, and he has a great approach right now.

“I saw some tapes of him from 1999 and looked at his stats. When you take a Salmon, a Vaughn, a Jim Edmonds out of the lineup, you’re forced into roles you’re not comfortable with. That’s why it’s so important to stay healthy.”

The middle of the Angel lineup--Vaughn, Salmon and Anderson--was an anemic four for 27 with two RBIs in the first two games, but it looked strong Wednesday night, as Vaughn (single), Salmon (walk) and Anderson (RBI single) started the third-inning rally.

Vaughn even stole second with a head-first dive--his first stolen base since May 26, 1997--and scored in the fourth inning.