Bad Rapp for Angels

The velocity was there--Pat Rapp hit 90 mph on the Edison Field speed gun a few times Tuesday night, and his fastball was consistently clocked in the 89-mph range. Many of Rapp’s breaking balls had good bite.

But a command performance, this was not. The new Angel right-hander walked four and hit a batter, and every player who was issued a free pass crossed the plate in the Texas Rangers’ 7-5 victory, spoiling the Angels’ home opener before a crowd of 42,784.

The Angels outhit the Rangers, 15-8, and shortstop Benji Gil extended his consecutive hit streak to seven--one shy of the franchise record--with three singles before striking out in the eighth.

Tim Salmon had two doubles, a single and two runs batted in, Glenallen Hill had two hits, including a home run, and Darin Erstad and David Eckstein each had two hits, but all that offense could not overcome a bad Rapp.

“We’re concerned about his command,” said Manager Mike Scioscia, who held a closed-door meeting with Rapp and pitching coach Bud Black after the game. “Not only do the walks hurt, but he has been behind in a lot of counts, and that makes it tough. Pat’s a better pitcher than this. We know that.”

He certainly was in March. Rapp, who is playing for his sixth team in five years, had no such control problems in spring training, going 3-2 with a 4.39 earned-run average, 23 strikeouts and seven walks in 26 2/3 innings.

But he has already walked more batters (eight) in nine regular-season innings than he did all spring. As a result, he has given up 13 earned runs on only 10 hits in his two regular-season starts, both against Texas.

“My bullpen workouts have been fine, and my pitches are down in the zone, but maybe I’m trying to pick too many corners,” Rapp said. “In spring training, I didn’t do that. I just threw strikes. . . . I’m getting behind hitters and then giving up the big hit, and all the walks are killing me.”

Scioscia was ejected for questioning home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley’s strike calls before the start of the ninth inning Tuesday night; his patience with Rapp could be wearing thin too.

Rapp is scheduled to pitch again this weekend against Seattle, but if he has another bad start--and Matt Wise pitches well Thursday night--Scioscia may leave Wise in the rotation and move Rapp to the bullpen when Jarrod Washburn and Ismael Valdes come off the disabled list.

“We need him to get it going--when you give a club like that five walks, you’re setting the table for them,” Scioscia said. “I don’t see any reason why he can’t work through this.”

Rapp was tagged for seven runs on four hits in four innings Tuesday night, and by the time the last of his walks had led to a run in the fifth, the Rangers had a 7-3 lead.

Hill homered in the sixth and Salmon’s run-scoring double off Texas closer Tim Crabtree in the ninth made it 7-5, but Ranger third baseman Ken Caminiti made a spectacular diving back-hand stop of Bengie Molina’s grounder, got up and threw to first to end the game.

Texas got some excellent relief work from Mark Petkovsek, the former Angel who struck out five in 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Angel relievers Lou Pote, Al Levine and Ben Weber held the Rangers scoreless over the final five innings.

Rapp created his mess in the second when he walked Rafael Palmeiro, hit Andres Galarraga with a pitch and walked Chad Curtis to load the bases with two outs.

Ruben Mateo followed with a wicked shot to deep left, a line drive that froze outfielder Garret Anderson for a split-second. By the time Anderson turned and headed toward the wall, it was too late; the ball was over his head for a three-run triple.

Rusty Greer’s RBI single to left capped the rally and gave the Rangers a 4-0 lead, but the Angels countered with a run in the bottom of the second on Shawn Wooten’s triple and Gil’s RBI single.

They added two more in the third when Eckstein singled and Salmon doubled down the left-field line, scoring Eckstein from first. Salmon scored on Anderson’s single to left to make it 4-3.

But Rapp walked Caminiti with one out in the fourth and followed that with a glaring mistake, grooving an 0-and-2 pitch to Curtis, who ripped it over the wall in left for a two-run homer and a 6-3 Ranger lead.

When Alex Rodriguez opened the top of the fifth with a walk, Scioscia pulled Rapp in favor of Pote, who gave up a single to Palmeiro and an RBI single to Galarraga for a 7-3 lead.

The Angels have played seven games and their opponents have scored first in each game.

“We can’t put ourselves in a position where we have to come back as much as we did last year, or it will be tough,” Scioscia said. “It comes back to our starting pitchers. They’ve got to pitch effectively deep into games.”