Offense Disappears for Angels

Things can’t get any worse for the Angels today. They will not fall deeper into the offensive abyss they have been stuck in for 10 games. They will not feel as if their bats have been reduced to sawdust. They will not walk away from home plate griping about an umpire’s call. They will not lose another baseball game.

The Angels are off today.

If ever there was a team in need of a break, it is the Angels, who were steamrolled Sunday by the Seattle Mariners, who completed their first four-game sweep of the Angels with a 5-0 victory before 44,192 in Safeco Field.

The Angels have lost eight of their last nine games, a stretch in which they have batted .188 (54 for 287), to fall eight games behind the Mariners in the American League West. They finished a season-opening, 19-game stretch against division opponents with a 7-12 record.

They have scored 22 runs and had 62 hits in their last 10 games, an average of 2.2 runs and 6.2 hits. In four games against Seattle, the Angels scored five runs and had 25 hits. They went one for 19 with runners in scoring position in the series.

They managed only six singles, three of which actually reached the outfield, against Mariner starter Aaron Sele and relievers Norm Charlton and Jose Paniagua on Sunday. Only two Angel runners advanced as far as second base.

The only highlight came when closer Troy Percival dusted off the cobwebs and hit 100 mph on the Safeco Field speed gun during a dominating, one-two-three eighth, an encouraging sign for the Angels if they ever find themselves with a late lead.

“The schedule-makers knew what they were doing,” Angel right fielder Tim Salmon said of today’s off day. “This couldn’t come at a better time for this group of guys.

“Hopefully it will take our mind off the game for a day, clear our heads of any negative thoughts. We can kind of distance ourselves from this a bit, get a little perspective, and come out with a fresh start.”

That will come against the red-hot Cleveland Indians, who have won six games in a row entering a three-game series against the Angels that begins Tuesday in Jacobs Field. The schedule-makers may have smiled on the Angels today, but that could turn into a grimace if the Angels don’t start hitting this week.

“We’re in a rut now, but when we start swinging the bats like we’re capable of, we can pick up ground in a hurry,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We’re counting the minutes until that happens.”

The Angels, who went down on called third strikes 10 times in the first three games of the series, did not strike out once Sunday, but they didn’t exactly make good contact either.

When they did, a tight Mariner defense that did not commit an error in the series thwarted the Angels with good plays, such as third baseman Mark McLemore’s diving stop of Darin Erstad’s grounder and center fielder Mike Cameron’s running catch of Wally Joyner’s drive to the warning track in the eighth.

The Angels’ only threat--a mild one, at that--was when Adam Kennedy and David Eckstein reached on two-out infield singles in the fifth. The rally died when Erstad grounded to first on Sele’s first pitch.

The Mariners responded with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to turn a 2-0 game into a 4-0 rout, as Cameron led off with a triple and Stan Javier and Al Martin each doubled against Angel starter and loser Ramon Ortiz.

Seattle scored in the first on Bret Boone’s RBI fielder’s choice after loading the bases on singles by Ichiro Suzuki and Javier and a walk by John Olerud. Martin hit a home run in the fourth. Suzuki’s RBI single in the sixth made it 5-0. Ortiz was charged with five runs and 10 hits in five innings.

“A pitcher’s natural inclination when you’re not scoring runs is to magnify the importance of every pitch,” Scioscia said. “It’s like last year, when the hitters felt extra pressure to score because we weren’t pitching well. We haven’t generated any opportunities.”

Nor will they today, but that’s not such a bad thing in Scioscia’s mind.

“This team needs a break,” he said. “A lot of guys have been pounding their heads against the wall, trying too hard. They need a day off to regroup and try to think of some positive things.”