Kennedy Gets as Good as He Gives on Hard Slide

Despite a hard slide that was potentially damaging, Angel second baseman Adam Kennedy said Saturday that he was not angry with Dodger baserunner F.P. Santangelo.

“He went hard,” Kennedy said. “I go in hard too. So it’s not like I’m complaining about that.”

Santangelo broke up a possible double play in the seventh inning with a high, late slide that carried him over the second-base bag and upended Kennedy. Angel Manager Mike Scioscia argued with umpire Greg Gibson that Santangelo had tried to roll Kennedy, which is outlawed.

“He got me pretty good,” Kennedy said. “That’s how he plays. I do the same thing.”

Gibson could have ruled both runners out, which would have ended the inning.

“I saw a roll,” Scioscia said. “I just wanted to see what his interpretation of it was.

“If it’s a clean slide, I have no problem with it. I know F.P. plays clean. I know his intention was to go hard and break up two. I respect that. [But] I saw a roll, which might have been unintentional. But, it doesn’t matter if it’s unintentional or not. If you catapult over that bag, that’s a roll.”

Kennedy, who landed in a heap beside Santangelo, said he was not hurt.

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Center fielder Garret Anderson was scratched from the lineup just before game time because of pain in his right shin.

The diagnosis changed overnight, the Angels believed for the better.

Anderson initially thought the injury was related to soreness he occasionally experienced after playing basketball as a youngster. By Saturday morning, the Angels said it was more likely a bruise, suffered when he was thrown out trying to steal in the fourth inning Friday night.

The injury is not believed to be serious.

“It feels like a bruise,” Anderson said.

Darin Erstad moved from left field to center field and Orlando Palmeiro started in left field.

Anderson, whose career-high 26 home runs appear to have come at the expense of his batting average (career-low .249), has hit in nine consecutive games. He batted .343 in the stretch.

Asked if he would be able to play today, when the Angels begin a three-game series in San Diego, Anderson said, “I hope so.”

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Angel starter Seth Etherton had little command of his pitches in the early innings but repeatedly found outs in the most critical of situations. The Dodgers were hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position against Etherton, a rookie in his seventh big league start.

“Each inning there was one key pitch to get the out,” Etherton said, “and I got the out.”

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Left-hander Scott Schoeneweis threw 67 pitches Friday night for Class-A Lake Elsinore. Scouts reported that his velocity was good and that his command improved as the game went on.

Rehabilitating a strained muscle in his right side, Schoeneweis is scheduled to make his next minor league start for triple-A Edmonton on Wednesday in Oklahoma City.

He will make one or two starts for Edmonton before returning to the big league rotation.

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Kent Mercker is scheduled to throw batting practice Monday in San Diego. . . . Erstad has a major league-best 149 hits in 390 at-bats. Last season, in 585 at-bats, he had 148 hits. . . . Palmeiro’s second-inning, run-scoring double was his first hit in 15 at-bats. . . . Troy Glaus has homered in three consecutive games for the first time in his career.