Angels Savor 20-Something Look

Home run No. 20 for Troy Glaus sailed far beyond the center-field wall in Camden Yards on Sunday, a three-run blast in the third inning that traveled an estimated 438 feet and keyed the Angels’ 8-6 victory over the Baltimore Orioles before a crowd of 41,198.

It came a full three weeks before the All-Star break and put Glaus on pace for 47 homers, which would be a monster year for a 23-year-old playing only his second full season in the major leagues. But to Glaus it was about as significant as hitting a grounder up the middle in batting practice.

“It means I know I’ll end the year with at least 20 home runs,” said Glaus, who was 0 for 13 against Angel killer Scott Erickson before capping a five-run third with his blast against the Oriole right-hander.

“Who knows [what I’ll end up with]? The day is over. We have an off day [today]. We’ll go get ‘em Tuesday. I don’t put too much weight on it. They’re nice to hit, but you never know if you’re going to hit another one.”

That may be the main reason Glaus has emerged as one of baseball’s rising stars; why he is drawing comparisons to a young Mike Schmidt; why he will probably make the American League All-Star team, and why he is hitting .314 with 20 homers, 48 runs batted in and leads the Angels in runs (53), doubles (21), walks (48), on-base percentage (.430) and slugging percentage (.649).

This is not the immature youngster whose emotions often mirrored his extreme performance swings in 1999, when he hit .341 in April, .130 in May, .227 in June and finished with a marginal .240 average.

Glaus is now a young hitter with a veteran mind-set and approach, one who doesn’t get too full of himself when things are going well or too depressed when things are going poorly.

“You’ve got to keep your confidence level up,” said Glaus, who only twice this season has gone two consecutive games without a hit. “You don’t want to get in a rut where you’re down in the dumps. Then your 0 for 4s turn into 0 for 8s and 0 for 12s. You’ve almost got to psych yourself out. If you’re not going good, you’ve got to keep thinking you are, keep telling yourself you are, because it might help.”

Like the Angel offense, Glaus had slipped into a little rut this past week, a four-for-25 slide dropping his average from .333 on June 9 to .315 entering Sunday’s game. The Angels, who lead the league in batting (.290), had scored only nine runs in their five losses on this trip.

But with three homers in Saturday night’s 8-3 victory over Baltimore and 14 hits, including Darin Erstad’s two-run homer in the fourth Sunday, the Angels appear to be rebounding.

They scored all eight runs on 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings against Erickson, who entered with a 16-4 record and 3.60 earned-run average against the Angels.

And for the second consecutive day, the Angels combined a strong offense with decent pitching, as rookie right-hander Seth Etherton gave up four runs and four hits in 6 1/3 innings Sunday and closer Troy Percival got Delino DeShields, the potential tying run, on a game-ending groundout for his 17th save.

Etherton (2-1) did a nice job of mixing his pitches and keeping the Orioles off balance, and he found a way to stop cleanup batter Albert Belle, who had six homers and 16 RBIs in his previous four games but went hitless in four at-bats Sunday, three against Etherton, a first-round pick in 1998.

“The humidity took a lot out of him, and he lost a little command at the end, but you can’t do a much better job than Seth did,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s shown great poise, and that’s why he was given this opportunity. He doesn’t have a huge minor league foundation, but he’s advanced for his age [23].”

Etherton, Brian Cooper and Jarrod Washburn, who all started the season in the minor leagues, have combined to go 6-4 with a 4.02 ERA in 17 big league starts this season.

The expected return of Kent Bottenfield on Saturday will fill out the five-man rotation, but when Ken Hill and Jason Dickson are ready to return from the disabled list, Scioscia will face some extremely difficult decisions on who to send to the minor leagues.

“Maybe we’ll go with a seven-man rotation, how about that?” Scioscia said. “I’ve heard for a long time that having too many good starting pitchers is a nice problem to have, but it’s not going to be easy telling someone who has done the job that you can only pick five, and these are the ones we’re going with.”