Erstad Picks Up Where He Left Off

A day game on the road for the season opener had Angel center fielder Darin Erstad’s stomach tied in knots Tuesday. In his first four big league seasons, from 1997-2000, the Angels opened at home at night.

“Usually, I throw up all day and that relaxes me by the time the game starts,” he said before Tuesday’s game, and he only seemed to be half-joking. “This day game is throwing me off.”

Once he reached the batter’s box, he found his center of gravity. He led off with a double over right fielder Ruben Mateo’s head, and he lined a run-scoring double to right-center in the third. Erstad also knocked in the Angels’ other run with a single in the eighth.

It was not enough to overcome the Texas Rangers, who won, 3-2, but it gave the impression that 2001 could be an extension of 2000, when Erstad hit .355 with a major league-leading 240 hits, 121 runs, 25 homers and 100 runs batted in, the most ever by a leadoff batter.

“Erstad picked up right where he left off,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He had a great day.”

It didn’t start well.

“I was pretty nervous, that was inevitable,” Erstad acknowledged. “With all the festivities for opening day, it takes you out of your routine, and you have to gear down, go with the flow. But once I got into the batter’s box, that competitive edge takes over. I guess I’m more comfortable there than I am walking down the street.”

*

If there was an Angel who was more nervous than Erstad it was David Eckstein, a 26-year-old second baseman who made his major league debut.

It hardly showed. The first grounder in the first inning went right to Eckstein, who fielded it flawlessly. Eckstein, who is starting in place of the injured Adam Kennedy, turned double plays in the second and third innings and started a double play in the fourth.

He advanced a runner with a ground-ball out in the third inning and hit a key single during the Angels’ run-scoring eighth. The ball from that hit was stuffed in the front pocket of Eckstein’s trousers after the game.

“To tell you the truth, I never really calmed down,” Eckstein said. “Everything was going so fast, I tried to slow it down. . . . The [long] introductions didn’t help at all. The waiting was tough. But it was awesome; it was everything I thought it would be.”

Erstad said he went to Eckstein before the game “to calm myself down.” He asked Eckstein if he was ready? “That was a dumb question, because he’s been waiting his whole life for this,” Erstad said. “You knew he was ready.”

Eckstein gained many fans in the Angel clubhouse during spring training with his scrappy, aggressive play, and his teammates were glad he had a strong big league debut.

“I love him,” Erstad said. “He’s my second-favorite player on the team. My first is Adam Kennedy. It must be the position.”

*

Angel starter Scott Schoeneweis, a sinker-ball specialist who relies on ground-ball outs, took advantage of baseball’s expanded strike zone, fanning four in a row from the fifth through sixth innings.

“When I strike out four in a row, you know they’re opening up the zone a bit,” he said. “But they were good pitches too.”

Schoeneweis made one key mistake when he tried to expand the zone a little too much in the second. With two on, no outs and an 0-and-2 count on Chad Curtis, he came low and inside with a slider that hit Curtis on the foot to load the bases. The Rangers then scored on Mateo’s double-play grounder.

“That was disappointing, but that’s right where I wanted to throw that pitch,” Schoeneweis said. “Another inch or two in the other direction, and maybe he swings and misses.”

*

In honor of the late Bill Rigney, the Angels’ first manager, his daughter, Lynn Rigney-Schott, will throw out the first pitch to former Angel catcher and manager Buck Rodgers at Tuesday night’s home opener at Edison Field.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

PAT RAPP

(9-12, 5.90 ERA in 2000)

vs.

RANGERS’

DARREN OLIVER

(2-9, 7.42 ERA)

Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, 5 p.m.

Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).

* Update--Rapp, the new Angel right-hander, hasn’t had much success against the Rangers, going 3-4 with an 11.18 earned-run average in eight starts against them and 1-1 with a 9.20 ERA in three starts against them last season. Ivan Rodriguez has given him fits, with a .533 average (eight for 15) and one homer, and Randy Velarde is six for 12 against him. Angel right fielder Tim Salmon has a .467 average (7 for 15) and one homer against Oliver, the Texas left-hander.