Schoeneweis Takes Charge for Angels

Scott Schoeneweis, the history major from Duke, swears that he does not read the sports pages, so he might be interested to know that his alma mater did not win a national basketball championship this season, and that it’s OK because North Carolina didn’t either.

He might also be surprised to discover that there are three four-game winners in the American League. There is Pedro Martinez, the Cy Young Award winner. There is Orlando Hernandez, the American League championship series most valuable player.

And there is Schoeneweis, the guy from Duke who sticks to the business section.

Schoeneweis gave up one run in eight innings Wednesday night at Edison Field, where the Angels hit three home runs and defeated the Detroit Tigers, 6-1.

Schoeneweis is 4-0 and his ERA fell to 3.06. While the Tigers wore out the patch of dirt in front of the plate, pounding sinker after sinker into it, Garret Anderson, Troy Glaus and Mo Vaughn homered.

Afterward, Schoeneweis swore he didn’t know where he stood among these pitchers after one month’s work.

Still, he said, “It’s pretty wild. We score runs when I pitch. We play incredible defense. They make it real easy. I hope I can keep it up. They put a lot of faith in me.”

Consider it repaid. He has won four of five starts because of his knack for sinkers and sliders in the right places. He threw only 95 pitches over eight innings against the slump-ridden Tigers, and the Angels won two of three in the series.

“The guy is really impressing us with his ability to stay with his game plan,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s not getting out of his game plan. He’ll make adjustments. That consistency is building his confidence, and the guy is as consistent as you can get.”

Scioscia gave Anderson a night off from the rigors of center field, though it probably had more to do with 10 consecutive hitless at-bats than anything in the way of fatigue.

After a solid start to the season, Anderson had cooled to a .247 average. He had last homered on April 14, the day he signed his four-year contract extension, and had one extra-base hit and two RBI since.

Scioscia wasn’t ready to remove Anderson from the lineup entirely, particularly against the left-handed C.J. Nitkowski, so he made Anderson the designated hitter, left fielder Darin Erstad the center fielder and utilityman Edgard Clemente the left fielder.

Anderson has been better against left-handers both in average (.263) and home runs (two of two).

Whatever it was that drove Scioscia to the lineup configuration, it worked for Anderson immediately. Perhaps that is why, when Anderson returned to the dugout after hitting a long second-inning home run, he smiled so fully at Scioscia.

Stirring slowly from his typical languid start, Tim Salmon lined a hard single to open the second inning. Anderson followed with a home run two pitches later, on a one-ball fastball that Nitkowski tried to pump through the middle of the strike zone.

Anderson hit it two rows into the right-field bleachers, 390 feet away. The two RBI gave him 409 in his career and into ninth place on the Angels’ all-time list, one more than Jim Edmonds had.

“This is a guy who’s really pushing himself to excel, probably a little too much,” Scioscia had said before the game. “It’s good for him to relax. I don’t want him to feel pressure like he’s got to carry the club and go overboard.”

Four pitches after Anderson’s homer, Glaus homered to left field and the Angels led, 3-0. It was the Angels’ third instance of back-to-back home runs, all in six days. Vaughn and Tim Salmon did it twice Friday in Tampa Bay. Glaus, who leads the club with six home runs, also homered twice Friday.

Glaus probably assumed a busy game was coming.

The combination of Schoeneweis’ sinkers and a Tiger lineup loaded with right-handed hitters meant plenty of topped balls to the left side. Glaus took a hit away from Tony Clark on a bare-handed play in the third and another away from Dean Palmer on a diving play to his left in the seventh.

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* TIGER WOES: Fans have reason to wonder why the wheels came off in Detroit. Page 6