Angels Should Be Getting a Bit Tired of This Familiar Trail

Kevin Stocker walks. The newest Angel is thrilled to lead off the ninth inning of a 7-7 tie with the Dodgers by getting on base.

After Mo Vaughn flys out, Tim Salmon gets hit by a pitch. Garret Anderson grounds out. Stocker moves to third, Salmon to second. Troy Glaus walks. Orlando Palmeiro walks. Stocker scores.

Angels win, Angels win.

Because the Angels win, it’s easy to forget about the rest. Forget how, for the second day in a row, Angel pitchers put their team behind from the start. Saturday, Brian Cooper gave the Dodgers a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Sunday, Jarrod Washburn let in four runs in the top of the first inning.

“Everybody’s doing their best,” Vaughn says later, “but you don’t want to do this every game.”

No you don’t.

It is exhausting to play from behind every day. “It’s something you don’t want to do,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia says.

“Right off the bat you know you need at least five runs to win,” Salmon says. “But at least you do know what you need.”

It’s not easy being an Angel hitter.

Imagine if you went to the office every day and some guy from the other company had made four sales before you had taken off your coat. Why? For no reason, maybe, except his company bought a better computer or a more sophisticated software program. That’s how it has been for Angel hitters the last couple of days.

Glaus has swung the bat well all season. The hot weather has arrived and Salmon is loose now too. His two-run home run pulled the Angels within a run, 4-3, in the bottom of the third inning. Darin Erstad is leading the American League in hitting. Can’t get much better than that.

But this is what was expected.

Lots of hitting by the Angels, lots more by the other team. But it is harder to accept now because it seems as if no team in the AL West is going to run away with the division.

In the seventh inning Sunday, the Angels are losing, 7-5.

They fought back from 4-0 down to get within 4-3. They trailed, 7-3, but come back again.

Vaughn is at the plate in the bottom of the seventh. There are two out and Erstad is at first base.

Vaughn glares at Dodger pitcher Matt Herges, who is throwing nothing but fastballs. Vaughn is swinging for the tie. Hard, harder, hardest. The hardest is strike three and Vaughn lifts his arm high, as if he wants to throw his bat down hard. But he doesn’t. He stops, hands the bat to a batboy and walks to first base.

Just because Big Mo struck out doesn’t mean that Angels give up. Salmon and Anderson start the eighth with singles. Glaus strikes out, but Bengie Molina singles and Salmon scores. Scott Spiezio walks, then Adam Kennedy, running for his life, keeps the Angels out of a double play so that Anderson can tie the score. Erstad strikes out to end the inning.

The glass is half full, though, not half empty. Erstad could have given the Angels the lead but so what? The score is tied and, as Salmon says later, “I had said to Mickey [Hatcher, the batting coach] in the sixth that I just had a feeling we’d win.”

Can’t keep doing this though. Can’t keep saying the starting pitcher kept you in the game by only giving up seven runs. The summer is too long for that.

Isn’t it?

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com.