Angels Pull the Plug Early

It seemed a logical move for Manager Mike Scioscia.

The Angels trailed Minnesota by eight runs in the seventh inning of a game that would drag on for 3 hours 41 minutes, it was an energy-sapping 88 degrees on an afternoon following an 11-inning marathon, and the Angels are in a stretch where they play 20 games without a day off.

So Scioscia gave his two leading run-producers the final three innings off, sending Darin Erstad and Mo Vaughn to the bench to rest for a key 10-game stretch against American League West-rivals Seattle and Oakland.

And guess what happened? The logic-defying Angels, who have 19 come-from-behind victories this season, made a game of it with a four-run eighth, but they lacked the firepower to finish the job and lost to the Twins, 10-6, Monday before 18,768 in Edison Field.

Though Edgard Clemente replaced Erstad and capped the eighth-inning rally with a run-scoring single, the Angels might have been better served with the bat of a guy who homered twice Sunday night. And Matt Walbeck, who replaced Vaughn and his team-leading 58 runs batted in at first base, flied out with a runner on to end the eighth.

But Scioscia didn’t think he waved the white flag too early. He was just trying to avoid the Red Cross later.

“We’re not giving up on a game by taking those guys out,” Scioscia said. “If they were fresh, they would have played, but it was a day game after a long night game, it was hot, and when your legs are a little soggy, there’s a greater risk of injury.

“There’s not a lot of opportunities to get these guys off their feet. We have to look at the big picture. If you don’t do that, you can stretch these guys too far, and instead of just stretching later in the season they snap.”

Erstad, who leads the major leagues with 121 hits and ranks second on the Angels with 57 RBIs, snapped a bit when asked if he was upset about coming out of the game.

“Do you think I’m gonna do cartwheels in the tunnel and go ice?” Erstad said. “But I’m not going to second-guess [Scioscia]. He’s got a lot more time in the major leagues than me, and he’s looking at the big picture. I just do what he wants me to do.”

If Angel starter Jarrod Washburn had done what Scioscia wanted him to do--continue a streak in which he gave up three runs in 22 1/3 innings of his last three starts--Erstad and Vaughn would have been non-issues.

But Washburn gave up more runs in the second inning than he did in his last three starts combined, as the Twins peppered him for five runs and five hits, including Denny Hocking’s two-run single, Chad Moeller’s run-scoring single and Jay Canizaro’s bloop single that drove in a run.

That provided a huge momentum shift for the Twins and ace Brad Radke, who got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the first when Garret Anderson popped to second and Twin shortstop Cristian Guzman made a back-hand diving catch of Bengie Molina’s grounder and threw Molina out at first.

Matt Lawton and Ron Coomer hit back-to-back homers to start the third, giving Minnesota a 7-0 lead, and the Twins added two unearned runs in the fourth and a run in the sixth on Canizaro’s homer to make the score 10-2.

Washburn gave up eight runs--seven earned--and eight hits in 3 1/3 innings, only the second time in 31 games an Angel starter has failed to work at least five innings.

“I was definitely feeling confident after three great starts, but [Monday] knocked me down to earth,” Washburn said. “I thought I had good stuff, but in that second inning I kept hitting the middle of the plate too much. My strikes were too good.”

Radke (5-9) gave up only two runs and six hits in six innings. He is 9-4 with a 1.82 earned-run average against the Angels in his career.

Anderson sparked the Angels’ eighth-inning rally with his 21st homer, equaling his career-high set in 1999. He also doubled after Tim Salmon reached on an error to start the ninth.

But Twin left-hander Eddie Guardado, who gave up Erstad’s game-winning homer Sunday night, retired Molina, Scott Spiezio and Adam Kennedy to end the game and an Angel homestand in which they went 4-3 against Kansas City and Minnesota.