Schoeneweis Blames Only Himself for Angel Defeat

Scott Schoeneweis gave up five runs on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings of the Angels’ 8-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals before 12,690 in Kauffman Stadium Thursday night, moving the Angels to the brink of elimination in the American League West.

But that was nothing compared to the pounding Schoeneweis suffered after the game, when the left-hander beat himself up so bad he deserved a standing eight-count.

“I’m not a good pitcher right now,” said Schoeneweis, who has given up 10 runs in seven innings of his last two starts. “Until I learn how to win games on a consistent basis, I’m gonna [stink]. That’s how I look at it.”

Manager Mike Scioscia begs to differ. Schoeneweis, who is 7-9 with a 5.14 earned run average, has pitched six innings or more in 21 of his 26 starts. He has kept the Angels in most of the games he pitched--they’ve won 11 of the games he started--and Scioscia calls him the team’s most consistent starter.

“But I have seven wins out of 26 games, so I must not be doing something right,” Schoeneweis said. “That’s the bottom line, winning, and I’m not getting the job done.

“I’m not getting crushed every time out, but it doesn’t matter whether you give up 47 infield hits and lose or give up 10 home runs and lose; it’s a loss, and my record shows I’ve lost more times than I’ve won.”

Few take losing as hard as Schoeneweis, but could such self-loathing be harmful?

“In some cases it drives you to improve, but there has to be a limit,” Scioscia said. “You can’t have the weight of the world on your shoulders and think you’re the sole reason your team is going to win or lose, and sometimes Scott does that. I think he’s done a great job and will only get better.”

Schoeneweis thinks he’s regressed this season. Since winning his first three games over New York, Toronto and Chicago, he is 4-9.

“I’m pretty much convinced the reason I won three games in April is because no one knew who I was,” Schoeneweis said.

Schoeneweis gave up all of his runs in the third inning Thursday, when two-out RBI singles by Jermaine Dye, Joe Randa and Dave McCarty capped a five-run rally. That gave Royal right-hander Jeff Suppan, who had given up a league-high 35 home runs entering the game, all the cushion he would need.

Suppan went the distance on a six-hitter, giving up three runs, one on Bengie Molina’s seventh-inning homer. Molina’s first homer since July 19 cut Kansas City’s lead to 6-3, but the Royals added two insurance runs in the eighth to seal the victory.

The combination of one more Seattle win and one more Angel loss will eliminate the Angels from the division race. They are 6 1/2 games back in the wild-card.

“You hope for the best and you want good things to happen, but we have a lot of guys learning on the job, and this is where they get their lessons,” Angel first baseman Mo Vaughn said, referring to the Angels’ batch of young starting pitchers.

“It’s tough trying to get back in the race with guys who are still learning. But we knew right after the All-Star break that this was the direction we were going. Reality is reality, and sometimes you’ve got to live with that.”

Is Vaughn saying the Angels essentially gave up when they traded veteran right-hander Kent Bottenfield in July and went with a youngster-filled rotation?

“You always have a shot, and all in all, our guys have done pretty well, but you know it’s going to be a crap shoot. You don’t know what you’re gonna get every night, so you take the good with the bad.”

Or, in Schoeneweis’ case, you take the bad with the bad.