Umpire Acknowledges He Made the Wrong Call

The umpire who made the controversial call that led to the Angels filing an official protest of Monday night’s 7-6 loss to the Red Sox admitted Tuesday that he blew the call and was out of position to make it.

But Derryl Cousins, who was in front of the second-base bag when he ruled Tim Salmon out at third on a force play in the fourth inning, said the Angels had no grounds for a protest.

“They’re spinning their wheels,” he said. “I screwed up the mechanics of the play. I should have rotated to third and been a lot closer. And looking at the replay, it looked like he beat the throw. . . . But it boils down to a safe or out call, and you can’t protest that.”

The Angels, who filed the protest with the commissioner’s office Tuesday, are not objecting to the call.

“There are two issues,” General Manager Bill Stoneman said. “First, whose call was it? There was no one in position to make it. Second, the umpire refused to get help. We think we have valid points.”

Cousins said he did not ask for help because the other umpires were not in a position to make the call, “and that would be like a first-base umpire making a call at first and then asking for help,” he said.

“You can’t make umpiring calls by committee. If we started asking for help, guys would start questioning every steal of second, balls and strikes, and games would last five hours.”

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia wasn’t buying that.

“You’re telling me a big play like that is not worth asking for help?” he said. “If you feel in your heart you did not see a play well enough to get an accurate call, you have the responsibility to ask for input to make a better call.”

Stoneman asked the commissioner’s office to expedite a decision because the Angels’ last scheduled game against the Red Sox is today, “but they did not give us a timeline,” he said.

Paul Beeston, baseball’s chief operating officer, is expected to make the decision. If, by remote chance, the protest is upheld, the game would be replayed from the point of the call.

*

The Angels, looking to boost their rotation, acquired left-hander Scott Karl and cash from the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday for a player to be named.

Karl, who won 10 or more games each season from 1996-99 and has about $1 million left on his $3.4-million contract, will start Thursday for Class-A Lake Elsinore, putting him in line for next Tuesday’s game against Toronto, where the Angels will need a fifth starter.

He went went 1-3 with a 7.40 ERA in nine starts and 1-0 with an 8.27 ERA in eight relief appearances for the Rockies this season. Karl, 29, went on the disabled list because of a lower back strain on July 16 but made three rehabilitation starts for triple-A Colorado Springs.

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Darin Erstad (spasm in left rib cage) sat out his third consecutive game Tuesday. The Angels are optimistic he will be able to return Friday. . . . Tim Belcher, out since July 3 because of an elbow injury, threw a 60-pitch simulated game Tuesday and could begin a minor league rehab assignment soon. . . . The Angels will honor Indian pitcher Chuck Finley as part of the Angels’ all-time team Friday night in Edison Field. Finley is scheduled to start Sunday night’s game. . . . Had the Angels completed a triple play in the 11th inning Monday night, it would have been the second time in major league history a game ended with a triple play. Detroit first baseman Johnny Neun turned an unassisted triple play to end a May 31, 1927 game against Cleveland.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

RAMON ORTIZ

(4-3, 5.58 ERA)

vs.

RED SOX’S

TOMO OHKA

(2-2, 3.38 ERA)

Fenway Park, Boston, 4 p.m.

TV--ESPN. Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090)

* Update--Ortiz was rocked for eight runs and 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings by the Yankees on Friday night in a wobbly performance filled with too much fidgeting and not enough focus, especially when the Yankees had runners on base.