Angels Can’t Get Over Hill

Angel right-hander Ken Hill was feeling a bit queasy Friday night, and many of his pitches seemed under the weather too.

Those fastballs that had so much zip in his first two starts appeared listless. Those breaking balls he was able to throw with such precision often strayed from the strike zone.

The result was the shortest outing by an Angel starter this season and a 9-4 loss to Chicago in the White Sox’s home opener before 38,912 at Comiskey Park.

Hill left because of stomach flu after giving up five runs on five hits in 3 2/3 innings, and the Angels couldn’t recover from the early deficit, losing the first game of a 10-game road trip. Hill, who gave up three earned runs in 11 1/3 innings against the Yankees and Red Sox, walked only two, but of his 87 pitches, just 44 were strikes.

“We knew Ken wasn’t feeling well, but we never got to the point where we might scratch him,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “His command wasn’t as good as it was in previous starts, and he wasn’t as aggressive as he has been, and part of that was because of the condition he was in.”

And part of it may have been the conditions.

“It was the wind, it was moving the ball all over,” Angel catcher Ben Molina said. “His ball was moving everywhere, in and out, and it was tough for him to stay ahead of hitters. He’s never had that kind of movement.”

Nor have the Angels experienced such inertia on the basepaths this season. Three times they had a runner on third base with one out, and all three times the runner was stranded.

The Angels had a chance to put considerable pressure on White Sox starter Mike Sirotka in the first inning when Darin Erstad led off with a bloop double and Adam Kennedy, who had three hits, singled him to third.

But Mo Vaughn flied to shallow left, Erstad holding. After Kennedy took second on a passed ball, Chicago second baseman Ray Durham, who was shading Tim Salmon toward the middle, raced almost to the line in shallow right to make a spectacular diving catch of Salmon’s bloop.

Not only that, Durham bounced up from the turf and threw home so quick that Erstad didn’t even attempt to score. Garret Anderson walked to load the bases, and Troy Glaus struck out looking to end the threat.

“The key was the play by Durham--that stopped their momentum and started ours immediately,” White Sox Manager Jerry Manuel said.

Frank Thomas, who has a league-leading .478 average, pumped some life into the White Sox offense when he lined a home run to right-center field in the bottom of the first, and Chicago added three runs in the second to extend the lead.

Carlos Lee was hit by a pitch with one out and took third on Craig Wilson’s hit-and-run single to right. Mark Johnson walked to load the bases, Durham hit a sacrifice fly to left, and Greg Norton doubled over Anderson’s head in center for two more runs.

A walk to Lee in the fourth, Wilson’s second hit-and-run single and Durham’s second sacrifice fly made it 5-0 in the fourth, and that brought Scioscia to the mound to pull Hill.

“Ken gutted it out, but he was having problems all night,” Scioscia said. “He tried to keep his composure, but it didn’t work out. It wasn’t real pretty. . . . He ran into a hot lineup and didn’t get away with many mistakes.”

Added pitching Coach Bud Black: “You could tell he was sapped of his energy.”

A sagging Angel offense finally stirred in the fifth when Erstad reached on a gift double--Wilson, the Chicago shortstop, actually dropped Erstad’s popup in shallow left--and Kennedy had an RBI single.

But the White Sox tacked on two more runs off reliever Al Levine in the fifth on Paul Konerko’s RBI double and Lee’s RBI single for a 7-1 lead.

Konerko, a former Dodger, also had a homer off reliever Lou Pote in the seventh, and Anderson, who agreed to a four-year contract extension earlier Friday, hit a two-run homer in the eighth.

“Maybe things would have been different if we would have picked up some early runs,” Scioscia said. “I think we have good situational hitters, but we missed some opportunities tonight.”