Injuries Limit Erstad’s Role to Pinch-Hitting for a Night

The Angels didn’t start a key four-game series against the Seattle Mariners on the right foot. Or the right hip. Their best offensive player, leadoff batter Darin Erstad, was a last-minute scratch Monday night because of tightness in his right hip and his lower back.

Erstad, who ranks second in the American League with a .371 average, first in the major leagues with 130 hits and is considered a lock to make the All-Star team, started at designated hitter Sunday against Oakland and was penciled in at DH again Monday night.

He said before the game that his hip had been locking up, causing him to fatigue quicker than usual, but the lower-back problem apparently flared up during batting practice.

The hip injury didn’t seem to hinder Erstad running--he stole bases in each of his last three games--and Erstad said he could have played in the field Monday night if needed. “But by staying off my feet, it should help quiet it down a bit,” he said.

Manager Mike Scioscia shuffled his lineup, moving Benji Gil to the leadoff spot and inserting DH Scott Spiezio in the second spot. Erstad was sidelined until he pinch-hit in the bottom of the eighth, when he singled and was pulled for a pinch runner.

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Scioscia insists third baseman Troy Glaus is not bothered by the lower-back stiffness that sidelined him for two games last week, but Glaus has not looked all that comfortable at the plate since then.

One of the team’s most consistent hitters for the first three months of the season, Glaus went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts Sunday night and swung wildly at several pitches outside the strike zone, displaying little of the discipline that kept him among league leaders in walks in the first half.

On Monday he stretched his hitless streak to 20 at-bats before his single drove in a run in the sixth inning.

Before Monday night’s game, Glaus was one for 22 with 14 strikeouts in six games since returning from his back injury, his average falling from .318 to .296, the first time he has been under .300 since April 17.

“He’s a little off right now,” Scioscia said. “He’s had a little indecision up there. Any player is going to go through these streaks, but I’m convinced his back is OK. He’s swinging well in batting practice and moving well in the field, and he says he feels fine.”

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The Mariners’ decision to tailor their team to hitter-unfriendly Safeco Field, stressing pitching, defense and speed and adding players such as leadoff batter Rickey Henderson, center fielder Mike Cameron and first baseman John Olerud, has paid huge dividends--Seattle is 28-12 in its new stadium, the best home record in the league.

“We play a little different style than the American League,” Manager Lou Piniella said. “We have some thunder in the middle of the lineup, but on the edges of it, we bunt and hit-and-run a lot.

“We knew the secret at Safeco was to pitch and play defense and add some speed. We did everything we wanted to do over the winter except add one more power left-handed hitter to the lineup.”

TONIGHT

ANGELS’ KENT BOTTENFIELD

(4-7, 5.60 ERA)

vs.

MARINERS’ GIL MECHE

(4-4, 3.49 ERA)

Edison Field, 7

TV--Fox Sports Net.

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

* Update--Bottenfield has already lost as many games this season as he did in all of 1999 with St. Louis, and the right-hander who was acquired for center fielder Jim Edmonds has felt some pressure to prove to the Angels that they were wise to trade for him. To do that, he needs to snap out of a funk in which he has given up 30 earned runs in 31 innings of his last six starts. The Angels haven’t had much success this season against Meche, the 21-year-old right-hander who gave up only two hits in seven innings of a 1-0 victory over the Angels on May 6 and gave up two runs on five hits in 5 1/3 innings of a 7-2 Mariner victory over the Angels Thursday.

* Tickets--(714) 663-9000.