Unsteady Wise Exits Early in Angels’ Rout of Rangers

A pitcher looks out of sorts and is a little fidgety as he struggles through an early inning. The manager, pitching coach and trainer rush to the mound, and the pitcher complains of dizziness and blurred vision.

The Angels saw something like this before, when Kent Mercker suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the Edison Field mound last May 11, and they got another good scare when Matt Wise was pulled in the second inning of Thursday night’s 13-3 victory over the Texas Rangers before a crowd of 17,435.

Wise remained conscious and walked off the field, but he was still a little wobbly after the game, some three hours later.

“Something went on upstairs in my head,” Wise said. “I lost all sense of balance. It was like the feeling you get when you get off a spin ride at a carnival. When [pitching coach] Bud Black came to the mound, I saw two Bud Blacks. It scared me.”

Wise, 25, had a similar episode in 1998 at double-A Midland, but attributed that to temperatures that soared into the 115-degree range that day. Game-time temperature was 59 degrees Thursday night, but Wise had a feeling something might be askew when he got a bloody nose warming up in the bullpen.

“That kind of opened my eyes that something was going on,” Wise said. “I wasn’t in a severe amount of pain like Mercker was, but it was like I was intoxicated. . . . It was torture for me. I couldn’t focus.”

Wise was examined during the game by Dr. Craig Milhouse and will undergo several tests, including an MRI exam, today. His condition was not deemed serious enough to send Wise to the hospital.

“The doctors don’t seem overly concerned, but they’re not sure what it is,” Wise said. “It might have something to do with my blood sugar.”

Wise’s setback put a damper on a game the Angels won with some timely hitting and some outstanding relief pitching.

Lou Pote relieved Wise in the second and gave up one run on four hits and struck out four in 3 1/3 innings to gain the victory. Al Levine gave up one hit in 2 2/3 scoreless innings, and Mike Holtz allowed one run over the final two innings to close out the win.

In nine games this season, the Angel bullpen has given up only five earned runs in 28 2/3 innings for a 1.57 earned run average, the lowest in the American League.

“You hate to see something like that happen,” Pote said of Wise, “but you have to forget about it and do your job.”

Afterward, Pote had some time to reflect on Wise’s condition, Mercker’s cerebral hemorrhage and Angel television announcer Rex Hudler’s hemorrhage from a blood vessel at the base of his brain last Saturday.

“It’s almost like there’s a curse,” Pote said. “You see the trainers come out, and you’re just hoping it’s nothing serious. We had Mercker last year, Hudler this year, and now this . . . it’s like someone is trying to get us on the wrong track.”

The Angel offense would not be derailed, though. Darin Erstad had three hits and three runs, Troy Glaus had a homer, a double and four runs batted in, and David Eckstein had two hits and two runs, as the Angels scored five runs in each of the third and sixth innings.

Wise, who had a chance to take Pat Rapp’s rotation spot with a solid start but now seems ticketed for the minor leagues, gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases with one out in the first but escaped by getting Ivan Rodriguez to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play.

After Andres Galarraga’s leadoff double and Ken Caminiti’s RBI single in the second, it was obvious something was bothering Wise. Black, Manager Mike Scioscia and athletic trainer Ned Bergert all came to the mound, and Wise was escorted to the dugout.

“I don’t know how I even got through that first inning,” Wise said. “I went into my delivery a couple of times and almost fell on my back.”

The Angels erased the 1-0 deficit with a five-run third inning off starter Rick Helling, a rally that was capped by Glaus’ two-run double and Garret Anderson’s two-run single, both of the hits coming with two outs.

The Angels added two runs in the fourth on Erstad’s RBI double and Wally Joyner’s RBI single, and Benji Gil (two-run double) and Glaus (two-run homer, his fifth of the season) keyed the five-run sixth. Larry Barnes added a solo homer in the eighth, his first major league hit.