Angels Send No Relief for Ace

Boos? At Edison Field?

The typically placid fans of Orange County tend to enjoy their games in peace, occasionally interrupted by an ovation for a Mo Vaughn home run or an appearance by the New York Yankees.

But those were boos, several rounds of them, directed toward Angel starter Kent Bottenfield during Sunday’s 10-6 loss to the Kansas City Royals.

Welcome to arena baseball, where endless offense means you never pull a quality starting pitcher too soon. Bottenfield pitched in five innings and the Royals scored in each one, nine runs in all. Yet the Angels did not even ask a reliever to warm up until the fifth inning, despite the, uh, repeated requests of the customers.

“Until you’ve exhausted any hope of him getting where he needs to be,” Manager Mike Scioscia said, “you stick with him.”

Yes, the Angel bullpen was running on empty after Scioscia deployed seven relievers in Saturday’s game. But, no, the Angels would not have yanked Bottenfield if they had a fresh supply of relievers, even down 5-0 in the third inning.

“With all the runs being scored today, 5-0 early in the game is nothing,” Angel pitching coach Bud Black said. “Teams come back. You see it all the time.

“He’s the linchpin of our staff. We’re going to try to get those innings out of him.”

Black pitched in the major leagues, and not so long ago. But, in five short years since his career ended, a starter who digs himself a 5-0 hole is no longer burying himself.

“Years ago, 5-0 in the National League and you’re a goner. You’ll be pinch-hit for,” Black said. “In the American League, you’re still going, but you’re just trying to eat up innings and save the bullpen.”

Today? Five runs? Hang in there, big guy, until we start hitting, and you might win.

And so the Angels hit. They tied the game in the bottom of the third inning, scoring five runs, four on one swing by Garret Anderson.

Bottenfield gave up two more runs in the top of the fourth inning. The Angels got one back in the bottom of the fourth. Bottenfield gave up two more in the fifth, and finally Scioscia had seen enough.

“Obviously, we were looking for more than him pitching into the fifth,” Scioscia said. “If it’s not happening, you can’t force it to happen.”

Bottenfield described his afternoon thusly: “I threw a lot of bad pitches.”

This was as true in the first inning as it was in the fifth. But, Scioscia pointed out, you don’t know that in the first inning.

“With a pitcher of Kent’s ability, you want to give him every opportunity you can to get it together,” Scioscia said. “It may look tough for awhile, but then he could find it and roll for four or five innings.”

Bottenfield accepted the blame for Sunday’s game. He took no consolation in the fact that he has started 10 games and allowed more than four runs just twice. Bottenfield, an 18-game winner last season, is 3-5 and winless since May 5.

“You go six or seven innings and give up four or five runs, and you’re supposed to be happy with that?” he said. “There are a lot of guys in the major leagues who feel good about sub-par outings. That’s not the way it should be.”