Aching Hill Thinking Retirement

Ken Hill held out his right arm Friday afternoon in Cleveland, 48 hours after his last pitch.

The elbow was swollen and the arm would not straighten. It’s nothing new, of course. The arthritis isn’t going away.

What is new is that Hill is wearying of having to deal with the results. Thursday night he told his wife, Lorrie, that they would have to talk this winter about retiring.

“The last couple years, it’s been a grind,” Hill said. “I’d like to play a couple more years, but I don’t know. The thing about it, I don’t want to go out on this bad note. I want to go out on a positive.”

Hill, 34, has a 5-7 record and a 6.52 earned-run average. His ERA in his last three starts is more than two runs higher.

“It’s to that point where this winter I have to make a decision,” Hill said. “The mental aspect the last two years, it’s just been horrible.

“It’s like I’m fighting all the time. I’m trying to do enough to help the team get by. It’s all about wins and losses now for us. From this point on, it isn’t about stats. It’s about winning games.”

Hill, whose fastball was clocked at a dismal 88 mph Wednesday, has one win since June 28.

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Jarrod Washburn will come off the disabled list and start Monday or Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox.

He will pitch Monday if Manager Mike Scioscia and pitching coach Bud Black want to give Hill a fifth day of rest. Washburn threw Friday and can be ready in either case.

Pedro Martinez is scheduled to pitch Monday for the Red Sox.

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Mo Vaughn started at first base Friday night against Cleveland, two days after he came out of a game in Anaheim.

Vaughn experienced pain in his left biceps during a sixth-inning at-bat against Detroit Wednesday when he tried to extend his left arm through the baseball.

After taking batting practice Friday afternoon, Vaughn shrugged and said the biceps felt “all right,” suggesting he was not at full strength.

Vaughn said he did not know the cause, but thought Scioscia’s theory of too much batting practice was a good one.

“Maybe that’s what it was,” he said.

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Darin Erstad, two-thirds of the way to the major league record for hits in a season, is starting to feel good again after a mild slump.

“Without question, for me, this is the toughest part of the schedule, right around the 110-game mark,” Erstad said. “Gary DiSarcina and I have talked about this. You get over that hump, and then you go. You get your second wind.”

Entering Friday’s game, Erstad needed 85 hits in 53 games to break George Sisler’s record of 257 hits. If he falls short it won’t be for lack of effort, said Scioscia, who played with Kirk Gibson, among others.

“He’s probably the most intensely focused player I’ve ever been around,” Scioscia said. “And he needs that to achieve.”

TODAY

ANGELS’ SCOTT SCHOENEWEIS

(5-5, 5.13 ERA)

vs.

INDIANS’ CHUCK FINLEY

(9-8, 3.93 ERA)

Jacobs Field, 1 p.m. PDT

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

* Update--Finley will pitch on five days’ rest. In eight starts with at least that much down time, he is 5-1 with a 2.70 ERA and each of his three complete games. Though only 2-2 with a 4.94 ERA in four starts since the All-Star game, Finley continues to pitch down in the strike zone. He yields nearly two ground balls to every fly ball, a 1.96-1 ratio that ranks second in the American League. Only Oakland’s Tim Hudson gets more ground-ball outs. Schoeneweis hasn’t won in six starts since May 25, but pitched well Monday, when he gave up four runs in eight innings against the Detroit Tigers.