Washburn’s Curve Hits Dead End

Left-hander Jarrod Washburn had so much trouble commanding his breaking balls in his first three starts, when he went 0-3 with a 7.56 earned-run average, that he eliminated one of them from his repertoire.

“I told Bud [Black, pitching coach] and Mike [Scioscia] there’s no reason to have two [awful] breaking balls,” Washburn said. “I might as well concentrate on one and try to make it decent. So I stopped throwing the curve.”

Washburn’s slider is still nowhere near Randy Johnson-caliber, but the elimination of the curve has reduced the clutter in his mind.

And that has made a huge difference, because in his seven starts since, Washburn, who relies mostly on the movement of his lively fastball, has gone 4-1 with a 3.38 ERA, including Tuesday night’s seven-inning, one-run, four-hit victory over the A’s.

“I don’t sit there going, ‘Maybe I should throw a curve here,’ ” Washburn said. “If I don’t have it, that’s one less thing to think about. It’s working now. Maybe at some point the hitters will figure it out and I’ll have to make an adjustment. But for now I’m going to keep working with these pitches.”

After pitching five times in a seven-day span from May 25-31, reliever Al Levine, who is sharing set-up duties with Ben Weber, needed five days off to recover from a minor disk problem in his upper back.

X-rays Tuesday revealed no major abnormalities, and Levine has been going to a chiropractor since the Angels returned from Tampa Bay on May 28. In the clubhouse, Levine has been sitting on a whoopie-cushion-like device that takes stress off his spine and helps his posture.

“The problem started in Tampa, and it might have had something to do with the beds in the hotel there,” said Levine, who suffered a loss and a blown save in two appearances against the Minnesota Twins last week. “A couple years ago I had a neck problem after sleeping in the same hotel. I might sleep on the floor next time. I don’t want to take any chances.”

Levine, who is 2-4 with a 3.23 ERA in 22 games, threw in the bullpen Tuesday and was cleared to pitch Wednesday night.

Set-up man Shigetoshi Hasegawa, who has a partial tear of the rotator cuff in his pitching shoulder, has been playing catch and gaining arm strength, and he plans to throw a bullpen workout Saturday.

Hasegawa, who is 2-3 with a 4.79 ERA, estimated he would return within two weeks, but Scioscia intimated it would be several weeks before Hasegawa would pitch for the Angels.

“Shige still has a lot of hurdles to clear,” Scioscia said. “We have to see how he comes out of his bullpen workouts. There’s still a ways to go before we can feel good about him coming back.”

The Angels concluded the draft Wednesday by selecting 30 more players, bringing to 52 the number of players they selected in two days. Of that group, there were 27 pitchers, 11 infielders, seven catchers and seven outfielders. There were 26 college players drafted, four community college players and 22 high school players. . . . Third baseman Troy Glaus is the Angels’ leading vote-getter in All-Star balloting through Monday, his 176,597 votes ranking second to Cal Ripken’s 207,243 votes among American League third basemen. No other Angel ranks among the top five at his position.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

SCOTT SCHOENEWEIS

(5-3, 3.82 ERA)

vs.

ATHLETICS’

BARRY ZITO

(3-5, 5.35 ERA)

Edison Field, 7 p.m.

TV--Fox Sports Net. Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).

Update--Since suffering the worst defeat in Angel history, when he gave up 11 earned runs and 12 hits in four innings of a 12-5 loss to Baltimore on May 23, Schoeneweis has given up only two earned runs and 11 hits in 15 innings of his last two starts. Zito, the A’s left-hander, has not won a decision since April 24.