Salmon Feeling Better About Crazy Season

Tim Salmon did not have to reach for the Rogaine on Sunday, and that was good news for the Angels and their struggling right fielder, who unloaded about two months of frustration with two home runs to lead the Angels to a 7-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals before 31,810 in Edison Field.

Troy Glaus and Garret Anderson also homered, and Ramon Ortiz gave up one earned run and six hits in 7 2/3 innings for his first win since April 28, as the Angels swept a three-game series from the Royals, matched their longest win streak of the season at four and won for the seventh time in 10 games.

But no one needed this kind of outburst more than Salmon. If the Angel offense, in the words of Manager Mike Scioscia, has been “stuck in the mud,” Salmon’s season has been buried in a quagmire.

The usually consistent Salmon, for whom 30-homer, 100-RBI seasons are the norm, was batting .195 after a May 26 game in Tampa Bay and was still hitting .050 (two for 40) with runners in scoring position through Sunday. He was dropped from third to seventh in the lineup in late May.

“I’ve been pulling my hair out, trying to do anything I can to help this team,” Salmon said. “You go crazy after a while.”

Salmon restored some sanity in the last eight games, going nine for 26 with four home runs and five runs batted in to raise his average to .217. Scioscia moved him back to his customary cleanup spot Wednesday night.

Salmon belted his seventh homer of the season in the third inning Sunday, a two-run shot to left-center off Royal starter Mac Suzuki that snapped a 1-1 tie and keyed a four-run rally. Home run No. 8, a solo shot to left, came off reliever Cory Bailey in the seventh inning.

“Usually it’s a broken-bat single or a bloop hit that gets you going, but hitting the ball hard is also a breath of fresh air,” Salmon said. “You can relax more. You’re not thinking so much. You’re not carrying the pressure of the last game, the last week or two, the last month, on your back.”

Is Salmon ready to declare his slump over?

“I’m almost reluctant to say that,” he said. “I feel good at the plate. I’m trying to relax more. I’m taking good passes at the ball, and I’m not fouling off balls I should hit. That’s a step in the right direction.”

The Angel offense took a big step forward, showing shades of 2000 by pounding a season-high four home runs, jumping to a big (5-1) early lead and putting constant pressure on the Royals while moving to within a game of .500 (27-28).

David Eckstein sparked the third-inning rally with a leadoff double, Darin Erstad bunted for a single, Glaus hit a sacrifice fly and Salmon and Anderson, who added a two-out, RBI single in the first inning, hit back-to-back home runs.

“Ramon threw great, and the offense clicked,” Salmon said. “This is the team everyone expected to see this year.”

This is not the kind of pitching many expected, but the Angels have no complaints. With Ortiz’s strong performance Sunday, Angel starting pitchers have combined to go 4-1 with a 1.88 earned-run average in the last eight games, giving up two home runs and 12 earned runs in 57 1/3 innings.

The Angels have a 4.00 team ERA, fifth best in the American League, and they’ve allowed only 43 home runs, second lowest in the major leagues behind Boston.

Ortiz, who has been the Angels’ most erratic starter, did a much better job Sunday getting ahead of hitters and pitching aggressively inside.

He seemed far more relaxed and more composed than he did in his last start, when he needed 101 pitches to get through five-plus innings against Minnesota on Tuesday night.

The right-hander gave up a home run in the third inning when A.J. Hinch’s fly ball hit the left-field foul pole, but he retired 14 of 16 batters from the fourth through eighth innings.

“This is what can happen when we match offense with our pitching,” Scioscia said. “Last year, with the way we swung the bats, when we got good starting pitching we could have games like this because we knew the bats were going to be there.

“This year, it’s reversed. When we hit like we did [Sunday], we can have games like this because we know the pitching is going to be there.”