Situation Is Not Good for Angels

Bummer.

So the Angels are 0-2 and Angel fans don’t have a $252-million Alex Rodriguez to blame.

So the Angels are 0-2 and have lost in a battle of good pitching and in a one-sided battle of good hitting versus too-late hitting.

So the Angels are unlucky. Darin Erstad, who was going to hit, like, .600 this year the way he saw and smashed the ball on Tuesday, comes up with the bases loaded in the top of the second on Wednesday and strikes out. Swinging.

So Glenallen Hill got to second on a two-base throwing error after which there was a walk and a single. And Hill couldn’t score. Not even close. Not even a chance he’d go from second to home on David Eckstein’s single.

So what?

Who wants to be depressed in April? Who wants to give up after two games? Who wants to even think about the Angels coming into their home opener Tuesday 0-6?

Not us. Not now.

Now is the time to accentuate the positive.

Now is the time to listen to Angel Manager Mike Scioscia. He speaks enthusiastically about how well the Angels “set the table.” This doesn’t mean they knew where to put the napkins and the knives and forks on the postgame buffet spread.

This means the Angels got men on base. Lots of them. Five in the first two innings. None of them scored, but we aren’t going to think about that right now.

In the first inning the table is set when Erstad walks and Benji Gil singles. Insert your ovation here. Then Tim Salmon strikes out. Oops, erase that. Troy Glaus walks. Ovation again. Garret Anderson lines into an inning-ending double play. Erase that. But Anderson hit the ball really hard. Ovation.

See?

This isn’t so hard.

Want to play along?

Let’s take the Rangers’ first inning. Rusty Greer walks. Randy Velarde doubles. So skip ahead, skip ahead. Rodriguez pops out. Time to gloat. Pat Rapp, elderly Angel pitcher, gets out baseball’s quarter-billionaire. Rafael Palmeiro hits a sacrifice fly and Greer scores. But it’s the first inning when one run for an out seems an OK trade. We are being positive after all. And then Ivan Rodriguez flies out. Standing ovation for Rapp.

Hey, this is fun.

In the second inning, that’s when Hill forces Ranger third baseman Ken Caminiti into that throwing error by hitting the ball right at him. Strategic brilliance by Hill, don’t you think? Bengie Molina walks. Angels on first and second. Feel it coming? The rally? The big inning? The setting of the table? Scott Spiezio flies out to center and Hill is no threat to advance, but skip ahead, skip ahead to when rookie Eckstein gets his second big-league hit. Hill couldn’t help but get to third. Bases loaded. One out. Erstad up. Strike out. Skip ahead.

When asked to grade his performance, Rapp says, “I’d give it an ‘L.’ ” As in loss. But Rapp isn’t cooperating with our positive outlook and neither is Scioscia when he says that Rapp didn’t pitch quite as sharply as he had in spring training. If we think about that too much, how Rapp did better when it didn’t count than when it did, it would be way too depressing.

So, skip ahead, ahead, ahead, ahead, ahead, ahead.

All the way to the ninth inning.

For we would not want to dwell on Rapp giving up a run an inning for the first three which is better than the three he gives up in the fifth on Andres Galarraga’s three-run shot on a 3-0 count.

Or how, after leaving all those guys on base in the first two innings, the Angels let Darren Oliver, who was a pretty awful pitcher in 2000 with his 2-9 record and 7.42 ERA, pretty much dominate them.

Stop. You’d have to hit the fast-forward button if you’d taped this game. But it wasn’t on TV in Southern California so this is easy. We’ll paint you a pretty picture.

Look at how, in the top of the ninth, the Angels score three runs. They were not shut out. Orlando Palmeiro (a two-run shot) and Salmon hit back-to-back home runs. Then Glaus doubles. If you are on the edge of your seat now, sit down. There were two outs and Anderson hits the very first pitch after Glaus’ double. And Anderson was out. And the game was over.

Afterward Scioscia said that he “saw some good signs.” And that Rapp “did a good job for not having his best stuff.” And that the Angels were “getting guys where we wanted them to be.” Unless the Angels wanted them to cross home plate. But don’t think that. Positive, accentuate the positive.

In the visiting clubhouse at the Ballpark at Arlington, there is a big sign over the lockers. “The Road to Success is Always Under Construction.”

Which is kind of like the 5 freeway outside Edison Field. Which is kind of like these Angels.

Under construction. The negative Nellies will say that the construction never ends. But that’s not us. Not today. We say that Rapp will win some games and next time Erstad comes up with the bases loaded he’s going to hit a double off the wall and when Palmeiro gets the third home run of his career it won’t be in the ninth when his team is down 7-0.

We say the Angels won’t come home 0-6. Maybe 1-5, but not 0-6.

Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com