Anderson Has a Production Line

Center fielder Garret Anderson entered Saturday night’s game with a .246 batting average, 54 points below his career mark of .300. His on-base percentage was a subpar .257, in part because he has drawn only four walks in 195 at-bats.

Yet Anderson is off to his best start in six years as an Angel.

His 12 home runs and 37 runs batted in put him on a pace for a 40-homer, 125-RBI season, numbers that would shatter his career highs of 21 homers in 1999 and 92 RBIs in 1997.

Anderson is batting .327 with runners in scoring position, a dramatic improvement over his .256 mark in 1999. His .320 average with runners in scoring position and two outs was more than 100 points better than his .217 mark last season.

“It’s funny how the game is,” Anderson said. “My average is way down, but I’m getting hits when they count. I’m not going to try to figure it out. I just want to keep driving in runs.”

Only a handful of elite players hit for average and power, and there is a perception that most players have to sacrifice some average to hit for power.

But Anderson’s strikeouts (31) aren’t inordinately high, and he averages only 27 walks a year, so it’s not as if his batting average is down because he’s swinging for the fences.

“I’m not trying to hit for more power--my mind-set is the same,” Anderson said. “Do I care that my average is down? Yeah, I still like seeing that .300 at the end of the season. It’s frustrating, but the flip side is I have more homers and RBIs. The RBIs are the most important thing.”

Walks are not. With Troy Glaus having a prolific season (.327, 15 homers, 16 doubles, 30 RBIs) in the No. 6 spot behind Anderson, Anderson is getting more pitches to hit, because opponents don’t want to put him on base ahead of Glaus.

And, as he did last season, Anderson is doing a good job of pouncing on mistakes, driving good pitches on the inner half of the plate for home runs to right field. But he’s doing a much better job of hitting in the clutch.

“I think Garret will wind up hitting near .300, but I don’t think it matters if he hits .250,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “The bottom line is production, and he’s producing.”

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A day after Anderson was ejected for the first time in his career Friday night, Scioscia wasn’t buying umpire Tony Randazzo’s rationale, that Anderson showed up the umpire by tracking pitches all the way into the catcher’s mitt.

Nor did he agree with veteran umpire Ed Montague’s rationale that the reason Randazzo reacted so strongly to Anderson was that Randazzo is new to the American League and hasn’t learned the “body language” of players yet.

“So what are we supposed to do, cut the guys’ heads off so they can learn their body language?” Scioscia said. “This guy [Randazzo] overreacted. You can’t take our No. 5 hitter out of the game when we’re trying to come back, and that’s what we were so livid about.”

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Tampa Bay General Manager Chuck LaMar confirmed that Angel counterpart Bill Stoneman called him to inquire about shortstop Kevin Stocker, who was released by the Devil Rays Thursday. Stocker, who can’t sign with another team until he clears waivers Tuesday, made 11 errors in 40 games, 10 of them on Tropicana Field’s new artificial surface. . . . Jason Dickson experienced no discomfort Saturday when he threw in the bullpen for the first time since going on the disabled list May 15 because of a sore right shoulder and tendinitis in his left hip.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’ BRIAN COOPER (1-0, 6.00 ERA) vs. ROYALS’ MIGUEL BATISTA (2-2, 5.70 ERA)

Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, Mo., 11 a.m. PDT

TV--Channel 9. Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).

* Update--Erstad’s two-run homer in the third inning Saturday night gave the Angels 44 home runs in May, tying the club record for home runs in any month, set in August 1982. Catcher Bengie Molina’s passed ball in the fourth Saturday night was the first of the season for the Angels, who were the only team in baseball without a passed ball entering the weekend. Cooper, who got the win in Tuesday’s 7-4 victory over the Twins, will be making his second start since being recalled from triple-A Edmonton.