Angel Hopes Fading Fast After 6-3 Loss

It’s difficult to tell what’s fading faster, the Angel rotation or their playoff hopes. Right now, they’re neck and neck in a downhill race that, if not stopped soon, will leave the Angels at a loss for 2001.

The Kansas City Royals administered another beating to an Angel starting pitcher Wednesday night, knocking right-hander Pat Rapp around for four innings and then knocking him out of the game in the fifth during a 6-3 victory before a season-low crowd of 11,190 in Kauffman Stadium.

Rapp gave up six runs on seven hits, including two homers, in 4 2/3 innings, as the Angels fell eight games behind Oakland and into fourth place behind Minnesota in the American League wild-card race with 29 games to go.

Angel starting pitchers, who are most responsible for the team ranking third in the AL with a 3.97 earned-run average, are 0-5 with an 8.49 ERA in the past nine games, giving up 44 earned runs in 46 2/3 innings. In fact, take away Jarrod Washburn’s six-inning, two-run effort against New York Friday night, and that ERA would be 9.30.

‘Obviously, as we don’t keep pace [with Oakland] and don’t put up wins, those head-to-head games [with Oakland] become must-win, and you don’t want to put yourself in that position,’ Manager Mike Scioscia said. ‘We have enough games to get back into it, but you don’t want to be in a position where you have to get help.”

That would leave the Angels about as vulnerable as Rapp was in the fifth inning Wednesday night, when Mike Sweeney’s blistering line drive headed right for Rapp’s head. Rapp got his right forearm up just in time to deflect the ball, which was caught by second baseman Adam Kennedy on a fly behind the bag.

Rapp (5-11) left the game and was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City for precautionary X-rays, which were negative. He suffered a deep bruise on his forearm and will likely miss his next start, though with an off day Monday, the Angels can just skip his next turn in the rotation.

‘I thought that ball was going to hit him in the head,’ catcher Bengie Molina said. ‘Thankfully, that didn’t happen. When I saw him holding his arm, I thought, good, at least it didn’t hit him in the head.”

Rapp took another beating in the first inning, giving up four runs on Sweeney’s run-scoring single and Joe Randa’s three-run homer, a blast that traveled an estimated 403 feet to left-center. Carlos Beltran’s RBI single made it 5-0 in the second before Kennedy hit a solo homer in the third, producing a carbon copy of the first three innings of Tuesday night’s game, when the Royals scored four in the first and one in the second, and the Angels scored once in the third.

Then some dark clouds and streak lightning began to fill the skies, and the winds started howling around Kauffman Stadium, producing gusts of up to 45 mph to left field that bent several flag poles beyond the outfield wall. Under those conditions, Royal leadoff batter Carlos Febles belted a fly ball that carried an estimated 430 feet to left in the fourth inning. Febles, who had one homer in 175 at-bats entering the series, has three homers, two singles and has scored five runs in the first two games against the Angels.

Asked what he thought of Febles’ homer, Angel center fielder Darin Erstad replied: ‘You mean Babe Ruth? I think that’s what you call the definition of being locked in. Maybe I should talk to him.”

Tim Salmon’s RBI triple in the sixth cut the lead to 6-2, and after a 1-hour, 15-minute rain delay, Erstad’s RBI groundout made it 6-3. But Royal right-hander Cory Bailey replaced starter Jeff Suppan after the delay and pitched three scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out two to set up Roberto Hernandez’s 23rd save.

Unlike 2000, when the Angel offense scored runs in bunches and the rotation struggled, this group of Angel hitters does not seem capable of compensating for the kind of start Rapp gave them Wednesday night.

‘Our starting pitchers have had a couple of rough outings, and it’s tough when you haven’t put consistent [offensive] pressure on other teams,’ Scioscia said. ‘Pat couldn’t get the ball in spots early.”