Anderson Still Adjusting
Garret Anderson said he doesn’t feel “indecisive” in left field after spending the 2000 season in center, but Manager Mike Scioscia said Anderson has “shown some indecision” on a couple of balls he has had to come in on.
One came in the second inning Monday night against Oakland, when Anderson pulled back at the last second and an Eric Chavez bloop fell between Anderson and shortstop Benji Gil.
Another was Thursday against Texas, when Anderson, thinking Gil would catch a pop off the bat of Rafael Palmeiro, slowed as he approached the ball, lunged at the last second and missed. Anderson was charged with an error.
“When you play center field you’re the captain out there, you don’t have to answer to anyone,” Anderson said. “When you play the corners, you can’t just go after every ball. You have to know the guy in center. I haven’t played with Darin [Erstad] in center, so it’s kind of a feeling-out period.”
Anderson is going through the same process with Gil.
“I played behind [Gary] DiSarcina for so long, I knew everything he could do,” Anderson said. “With Benji, I don’t know how far he can go. We have to get used to each other. It’s a feel thing.”
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Right after Chavez’s bloop Monday night, Erstad lost Frank Menechino’s pop in the twilight sky, and second baseman Adam Kennedy had trouble tracking Johnny Damon’s pop, which nicked Kennedy’s glove and fell for an error.
“That’s not the first one I’ve missed, and it won’t be the last,” Erstad said. “There’s a time of day in every park where you really have to focus. You have a general idea where the ball is going, but when you’re running full speed and you take your eye off it, it’s hit or miss, and I missed.”
Erstad said the early innings of night games at Edison Field rank with 5 p.m. games in Oakland, day games in Seattle with the roof open, Minnesota’s white Metrodome ceiling and Fenway Park’s right field in the early innings of 7 p.m. games as the toughest backdrops to contend with.
TONIGHT
ANGELS’
SCOTT SCHOENEWEIS
(1-1, 3.92 ERA)
vs.
ATHLETICS’
CORY LIDLE
(0-1, 27.00 ERA)
Edison Field, 7
TV--ESPN. Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).
* Update--Schoeneweis has given the Angels quality starts in his first three games, giving up three earned runs in six innings or more each time out. Lidle beat out Omar Olivares for Oakland’s fifth rotation spot, and Olivares was traded to the Pirates, but Lidle gave up eight runs on nine hits in 2 1/3 innings of his first start against Texas on Friday night.
* Tickets--(714) 663-9000
