Anderson Can’t Explain Struggles

If you thought Garret Anderson’s home run total was hard to explain, how’s this for an unsolved mystery: Anderson, a left-handed hitter who entered the season with a career .307 average against right-handers, is batting .213 against right-handers this season. And .313 against left-handers.

“I can’t give you an answer,” said Anderson, who is batting .239 but already has surpassed his career high with 22 home runs. “There is no answer. Right-handers are not doing anything different against me than they have in the past.”

Anderson, who has 58 runs batted in, always has hit left-handers well--he entered 2000 with a career .284 average against them--so his success against them this season is not out of the ordinary.

“But it is surprising how he’s struggled against right-handers,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s gotten into a bad stretch of rolling over balls against right-handers [and grounding out]. Against lefties, I think he has more of a middle-of-the-field or left-center approach. But there’s really no concrete explanation.”

Perhaps Mickey Hatcher, the Angel batting instructor, has a theory?

“I don’t know, but every time he’s going bad I have Ron [Roenicke, the Angels’ left-handed third base coach] throw batting practice to him,” Hatcher said.

“I think Garret’s biggest enemy is in his head. He goes through periods where he guesses wrong, and that gets him in trouble. If you start guessing and start your swing too early, you’re going to hit a lot of choppers. He has great hands. He just needs to look for a ball in a certain area and recognize the pitch.”

On this point, Anderson and Hatcher do not agree.

“Sometimes in certain situations, like with a runner in scoring position, you look for a pitch a guy might throw, but I’m not a guess hitter,” Anderson said. “I have quick enough hands to hit. Maybe I’m just making hitting difficult because I’m thinking about it too much. I usually hit better when I keep everything simple.”

*

Angel right-hander Tim Belcher has a reputation as a pitcher who, even when he’s struggling, manages to battle his way into the fifth or sixth inning, but with his ejection in the second inning Tuesday and his failure to get out of the first Sunday, he has combined for 1 2/3 innings in his last two games.

“That’s two consecutive starts where I let the team down, one because of a mental breakdown and one because of a physical breakdown,” Belcher said. “It’s frustrating, because I’ve taken a lot of pride in pitching a lot of innings and saving the bullpen, but I certainly haven’t done that the last two starts.”

ON DECK

* Opponent--Seattle Mariners, four games.

* Site--Edison Field.

* Tonight--7.

* Record vs. Mariners--2-4.

* TV--Fox Sports Net tonight, Tuesday night and Wednesday night; Channel 9 Thursday night.

* Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).

* Records--Angels 42-39, Mariners 47-32.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’ KEN HILL

(4-4, 6.60 ERA)

vs.

MARINERS’ JAMIE MOYER

(6-3, 4.20 ERA)

* Update--Four games against the American League West-leading Mariners should give the Angels a good idea of how they stack up in the division. Seattle has been the hottest team in baseball, winning 17 of its last 22, and the Mariners won two of three from the Angels last week. They are more balanced this season than they were when they won the West in 1995 and ’97 because their rotation--even without Randy Johnson--is much deeper, their bullpen and defense are far superior, and they still are potent offensively with the likes of Edgar Martinez (.354, 23 homers, 84 RBIs) and Alex Rodriguez (.342, 21 homers, 71 RBIs). Though they rank last in the league in hits, Seattle ranks third in runs and leads the major leagues in on-base percentage (.366).

* Tuesday, 7 p.m.--Kent Bottenfield (4-7, 5.60) vs. Gil Meche (4-4, 3.49).

* Wednesday, 7 p.m.--Brian Cooper (3-2, 3.48) vs. John Halama (7-4, 4.98).

* Thursday, 7 p.m.--Jarrod Washburn (3-2, 4.21) vs. Paul Abbott (5-2, 3.97).

* Tickets--(714) 663-9000.