Dickson Back on Disabled List After Hip Tendinitis Flares

The Angel pitching staff grew ever thinner Friday when starter Jason Dickson went back to the disabled list because of a recurrence of the tendinitis in his left hip.

Right-hander Al Levine, who has flourished as a long reliever, will start in Dickson’s place tonight against Kansas City. The club purchased the contract of right-hander Brett Hinchcliffe and moved Tim Belcher to the 60-day disabled list, retroactive to spring training.

Levine probably will make at least two starts, depending on his success and how deep into tonight’s game he pitches. The club will choose between right-handers Brian Cooper, Seth Etherton and Matt Wise for the other start. Cooper appears to be the front-runner there.

The Angels are 17 pitchers into their organization, counting the disabled Dickson, Belcher, Kent Mercker and Ken Hill, along with Ramon Ortiz, who is learning to pitch in the minors. Ortiz apparently has a sore back, though he would not have been a starting option anyway.

The news about Dickson comes at a time when the Angels are laboring to get consecutive productive pitching performances from their rotation. They have three quality starts in their last 19 games, all of them by veteran Kent Bottenfield. And, they have lost 10 of their last 11 games in which they scored fewer than four runs.

Dickson was on the disabled list with the same hip injury, then came off to pitch against Texas on Sunday. He didn’t make it out of the second inning.

“[The injury] wasn’t as far along as we hoped,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We had given it a good amount of time. It should have healed. Obviously, it needs more time.”

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It seems Levine won’t get carried away with a couple of starts. The low-key reliever said he’ll take the ball when handed to him, whether it be the first inning or the fifth.

“There are successful starters that are going to be coming off the DL,” he said. “Those guys are going to be the starters.”

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Belcher is due to pitch off a bullpen mound today. . . . For what it’s worth, George Steinbrenner has taken to berating his baseball executives almost daily for not trading for Jim Edmonds, according to officials in New York. . . . Doctors at UC Irvine Medical Center have tentatively targeted Monday to release Mercker, who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage May 11. . . . The Angels continue to await a decision from shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who is mulling surgery for his ailing right shoulder.

Tonight

ANGELS’

AL LEVINE

(1-0, 3.03)

vs.

ROYALS’

MAC SUZUKI

(1-0, 3.86)

Edison Field, 7

TV--Fox Sp. Net. Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).

* Update--Levine has made one other big-league start, last Oct. 2, when he pitched four shutout innings against Texas. He’ll be on a pitch count, probably about 70. He was last a regular starter in 1994, for double-A Birmingham. Suzuki went 8 1/3 innings to beat Cleveland on Sunday, when he had nine strikeouts.

* Tickets--(714) 663-9000.