Pitchers Take High Road

There was no rematch. The ill will between the Angels and Blue Jays generated when Toronto reliever John Frascatore threw at Scott Spiezio and the ensuing bench-clearing incident in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s 16-10 Angel victory did not carry over to Wednesday’s game.

Despite hints from several Angels that they might retaliate, Angel pitchers did not hit any Toronto batters, even after the Blue Jays pounded Angel starter Ken Hill for 10 runs and 11 hits in 3 1/3 innings.

“We’re not into beanballs,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We like to pitch inside, and we pitch inside hard. If they have a problem giving up runs, they need to make their pitchers throw better. You don’t throw at a guy because you’re making poor pitches and getting hit.”

Frascatore, who gave up five runs in the ninth inning Tuesday, insisted again Wednesday that he wasn’t throwing at Spiezio.

“If they want to retaliate,” Frascatore said, “I’ll be the guy to take the bat out there and get hit.”

Even though Scioscia thought it was “a little obvious” that Frascatore’s pitch was intentional, that did not make him more inclined to order a payback pitch Wednesday.

There were some eyebrows raised when Angel reliever Mark Petkovsek threw a breaking ball behind Carlos Delgado’s back in the eighth, but Petkovsek told Delgado and umpire Mike VanVleet the ball slipped out of his hand--it didn’t really come close to Delgado--and both seemed to accept his explanation.

“Retaliation isn’t our thing,” Scioscia said. “If our guys are getting bombed, we’re going to ask them to concentrate on making better pitches, not drilling guys.”

*

For those still recovering from the shock of the Angel rotation having the lowest earned-run average in baseball--at least, before Wednesday night’s loss--brace yourself for another surprising statistic: The Angels are tied for the major-league lead with 16 stolen bases.

It’s not because they have blazing speed. Only one Angel starter, Darin Erstad, has above-average speed. But the Angels are doing a good job of picking their spots, as evidenced by the stolen bases of Spiezio and Troy Glaus, two of their slower runners, Tuesday night.

Adam Kennedy leads the team and ranks second in the American League with five stolen bases and hasn’t been caught. As a team, the Angels have been caught stealing eight times.

“You have to be smart about it,” Scioscia said. “We’re going to be aggressive if the opportunity is there, but you can’t force a running game. You have to look at the situation: Is the time right? Is the pitcher slow to the plate? Does the catcher throw well?”

Before Wednesday night’s game got out of hand, Erstad got such a good jump on his steal of second in the third inning that neither middle infielder covered second base and the catcher didn’t make a throw.

“If we can manufacture more runs with stolen bases, that will take the pressure off guys in the middle of the lineup,” Scioscia said. “They won’t have to pound the ball for us to win.”

TONIGHT

ANGELS’ KENT BOTTENFIELD (1-1, 2.41 ERA) vs. BLUE JAYS’ ROY HALLADAY (1-2, 8.04 ERA)

SkyDome, 4 PDT

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

* Update--Bottenfield shut down one of baseball’s hottest-hitting teams in his last start, throwing seven shutout innings and limiting the White Sox to five hits in a 3-1 victory Saturday. He’ll face another hot team in the Blue Jays, who have scored 29 runs on 44 hits in the first three games of this series against the Angels. Blue Jay second baseman Homer Bush, who sat out the last three games because of a strained hamstring, is expected to return. Toronto outfielder and leadoff batter Shannon Stewart (slight hamstring pull) probably will sit out.