Angels at a Loss Again

This is no time to panic, Angel Manager Mike Scioscia will tell you. The season is a mere 14 games old, and there are 148 games over the next 5 1/2 months to make up ground, so why fret over a little four-game losing streak?

Well, here’s one reason: While the Angels have been busy losing four in a row, including Tuesday night’s 5-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics before 17,837 at Edison Field, the Seattle Mariners have been busy winning four in a row.

Here the Angels are, only two weeks into the 2001 season, and they’re already five games out of first place.

That isn’t a huge deficit, but it seems pretty steep when you consider that the Angels played almost three months of the 2000 season before falling as far as five games off the pace in the American League West last June 20.

Another cause for concern: After finishing a three-game series against the A’s tonight, the Angels play four games in Seattle against the red-hot Mariners to end a 19-game season-opening stretch against division opponents.

A sign of the Angels’ concern: Scioscia held a brief closed-door meeting with his players after Tuesday night’s game to address their shortcomings, most notably their tendency to break down defensively and to let opposing pitchers off the hook too often.

“The way we’ve played the last four days isn’t even scratching the surface of what we can do,” Scioscia said. “We haven’t got it done on the offensive side, and we’ve had problems on defense. We need to play every facet of the game better.”

The one bright spot for the Angels--their pitching, a weakness in 2000, has been solid so far, with a team earned-run average of 4.02.

“That can’t be discounted because that’s a major part of bridging the gap between a club that is hanging on the fringe of the division race and a true playoff contender,” Scioscia said. “But we have to attack the ball better on offense, play better defense and give ourselves a chance to win some of these games.”

An anticipated pitcher’s duel between Oakland’s Tim Hudson and the Angels’ Ramon Ortiz never materialized Tuesday night.

Ortiz wasn’t as sharp as he was in his first two starts, both wins over Texas, and Hudson wasn’t nearly as dominating as he was on April 7, when he gave up two runs on three hits and struck out 11 in eight innings of a 4-2 victory against the Angels.

But Hudson, the right-hander with a nasty split-fingered fastball, was more resourceful, pitching his way out of several middle-inning jams and letting his superb defense bail him out of trouble.

A’s second baseman Frank Menechino made a diving stop of Garret Anderson’s hot smash toward the hole, turning a potential single with a runner on into a fielder’s choice to help thwart the Angels in the sixth, and he made a back-hand, diving stop of Bengie Molina’s liner to end the game.

Hudson went seven innings, giving up one run on David Eckstein’s third-inning homer. He gave up six hits and struck out five. Ortiz gave up five runs--four earned--on seven hits in six innings, striking out two and walking four, one intentional.

“Ramon didn’t have his A stuff,” Scioscia said. “He had problems commanding his fastball, and his slider was flat at times. But with a little better support, we’re in this ballgame.”

The A’s scored in the first when Johnny Damon walked and came home on Jason Giambi’s double to left-center. Eckstein’s homer tied it in the third, but Oakland took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Olmedo Saenz singled, took second on a groundout and scored on Ramon Hernandez’s single to center.

The A’s added an unearned run in the sixth, a rally that started when Eckstein bobbled Saenz’s grounder to the hole and threw late to first. Terrence Long singled to right, and both runners advanced on Hernandez’s sacrifice bunt.

With the Angel infield in, Jeremy Giambi hit a grounder toward the second-base hole. Adam Kennedy fielded the ball cleanly, but his throw home was high and wide, allowing Saenz to score without a slide for a 3-1 lead. Mike Holtz’s wild pitch and Eric Chavez’s sacrifice fly in the seventh made it 5-1.

“The effort is there--some of these guys are trying too hard,” Scioscia said. “We need to work deeper counts, use all fields and put more pressure on the other team. And we can’t keep opening the door for other clubs.”