Angels Stuck in Hole on Hill

Was it all a big tease? Is that all Ken Hill’s virtuoso performance, when he came off the disabled list and gave up one run in six sharp innings of last Wednesday’s victory over Seattle, will turn out to be?

If it is, the Angels could be in as much trouble this summer as they were Monday night, when Hill’s 1 2/3-inning meltdown left them in a five-run hole, one they could not crawl out of in an 8-6 loss to the Mariners before 20,919 in Edison Field.

The Angels showed some spunk, rallying for four runs in the sixth to cut Seattle’s lead to one, but Mariner first baseman John Olerud saved two runs with a spectacular backhand diving grab of Adam Kennedy’s grounder down the line with two on in the eighth, preserving Seattle’s lead.

Mariner relievers Arthur Rhodes, Jose Mesa and Kazuhiro Sasaki also combined to hold the Angels scoreless in the seventh, eighth and ninth, as Seattle dropped the Angels seven games back in the American League West.

The victory did not come without a scare, however. Mo Vaughn singled and Tim Salmon walked to open the ninth but Sasaki got Garret Anderson to fly to right, struck out Troy Glaus on three pitches and got Bengie Molina to fly out for his 17th save to end a 3-hour 54-minute game.

As for Angel pitching . . . Kent Bottenfield, whom the Angels once fancied as their ace, has been knocked around for 30 runs in 31 innings of his last six starts and leads the team in home runs allowed (18) and walks (43).

Tim Belcher, the veteran right-hander who was expected to provide a big lift to the rotation once he returned from elbow surgery, has thrown a combined 1 2/3 innings in his last two starts, with one game cut short by his ejection and the other by Oakland’s seven-run pounding Sunday night.

Hill fueled much optimism last week when the oft-injured right-hander, sidelined since May 9 because of a strained rib-cage muscle, shut down the Mariners in a 3-2 victory.

His fastball hit 95 mph in the sixth inning of that game, and he had excellent command of his slider and split-fingered fastball throughout. But he had neither power nor precision in his second start back.

Hill walked three in the first inning, giving up runs on Edgar Martinez’s run-scoring single and Olerud’s sacrifice fly, and he caused some consternation in the Angel dugout when he hunched over for several moments after walking Jay Buhner.

David Bell then singled to load the bases, but Hill caught a break when Anderson raced back to the warning track in center to make a lunging catch of Joe Oliver’s bases-loaded drive to end the inning.

Hill gave up a single and walked two more to load the bases in the second before giving up Olerud’s bases-clearing, three-run double on his 65th pitch of the game, and with that Hill headed for the dugout as Al Levine came in from the bullpen.

For those scoring at home, Hill, Bottenfield and Belcher, who have a combined salary of $14.2 million, have combined to go 10-14 with a 6.50 earned-run average in 29 starts this season. And the Angels expect to contend for the division title with this kind of pitching?

Only if they have more outbursts like they did in the bottom of the sixth Monday night.

The Angel offense began to stir with home runs by Anderson in the second and fourth innings off Mariner starter Jamie Moyer, both solo shots to right that gave Anderson 24 homers this season and pulled the Angels to within 6-2.

Mike Cameron’s double and Alex Rodriguez’s RBI single off reliever Mark Petkovsek gave Seattle a 7-2 lead in the fifth, but the Angels ripped Moyer, who struck out six in the first four innings with his tantalizingly slow changeups, for four runs in the sixth.

Salmon sparked the rally with a one-out double, and Anderson followed with an RBI double to left-center, improving his career average against Moyer to .470 (16 for 34) with three homers.

Glaus, who struck out in his first two at-bats and was mired in an 0-for-20 slump, blooped an RBI single off the end of his bat into shallow right, and Molina ripped Moyer’s next pitch over the wall in left-center for a two-run homer, cutting Seattle’s lead to 7-6.