Angels Come Up Empty

A 1-0 game involving the Angels and Tampa Bay Devil Rays Sunday seemed about as improbable as a rainout at Tropicana Field.

The previous five Angel games featured 100 runs and 136 hits, 24 of them home runs, and the Angels and Devil Rays turned Tampa Bay’s domed stadium into a pinball machine Friday and Saturday, launching several baseballs into the catwalks near the roof and wearing out each other’s pitching staffs.

But Sunday was a day of rest for the offenses. Tampa Bay right-hander Dave Eiland got the better of Angel right-hander Jason Dickson, as the Devil Rays took advantage of an Angel error in the fifth inning to score the game’s only run for a 1-0 victory before 15,601 at Tropicana Field.

Eiland, making his first start after five relief appearances this season, kept the Angels off balance with a mix of sinkers, sliders and changeups, giving up three hits and striking out two in six innings.

Relievers Jeff Sparks--one hit in two innings--and Roberto Hernandez--hitless ninth--completed the shutout, only the second 1-0 game in the American League this season.

Dickson was every bit as good as Eiland, spotting his fastball on both corners and effectively mixing his curve and changeup for seven innings, giving up four hits, striking out six and walking one.

Dickson also ended a string of four consecutive horrible starts for the Angel rotation, which was roughed up for 30 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings.

“I don’t think he could have pitched any better,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You can’t expect Jason to do any more than he did.”

Dickson couldn’t help but note the irony of Sunday’s game when compared with his last start, when he gave up four runs in the sixth inning in Toronto Tuesday but won because the Angels backed him with 16 runs.

“I was talking to [fellow pitcher] Scott Schoeneweis about how some days you’re bitter because you don’t pitch well and you take the win,” Dickson said. “I said that two or three weeks down the road I’m gonna lose, 1-0. I didn’t expect it here, in this park, with the way these teams were hitting.”

Dickson breezed through the first four innings, allowing one baserunner on a walk to Fred McGriff in the second. It was only the second walk Dickson has issued in 25 1/3 innings this season.

But McGriff broke up Dickson’s no-hitter when he led off the fifth with a dribbler down the third-base line against an infield shift that had third baseman Troy Glaus stationed at shortstop and shortstop Benji Gil behind second base.

McGriff took second on Vinny Castilla’s slow roller to the mound and third on Mike DiFelice’s fly ball to deep right. Kevin Stocker followed with a two-out roller toward the middle, just out of Dickson’s reach.

Second baseman Adam Kennedy charged and fielded the ball cleanly, but his off-balance throw to first pulled Mo Vaughn off the bag. Vaughn leaped to make the catch, but Stocker avoided the tag with a headfirst dive, tapping the base as he flew by.

McGriff scored on the play, and Stocker was generously awarded a hit, but the official scorer changed it to an error when Scioscia called him to complain after the game.

“Adam will make that play 99 times out of 100,” Scioscia said.

The Angels had only one true scoring chance, when Tim Salmon singled with one out and took third on Garret Anderson’s single to right in the fourth inning. But Glaus, who was 12 for 23 with three home runs and eight runs batted in in the last five games and hit a 470-foot homer here Friday, popped to first, and Scott Spiezio flied to the wall in left to end the inning.

“Sometimes you’ve got to tip your hat to the other guy--he pitched a good game,” Dickson said of Eiland. “That’s baseball. One day it’s 12-10, the next day it’s 1-0. But I’m not going to complain. If I pitch like that, I’m definitely going to win more than I lose with our offense.”

Of course, maybe all that baseball-bashing took a toll on Angel hitters. When asked about his performance in light of the Angels’ recent power surge, Eiland joked: “Maybe they were tired.”