Plenty of Blame to Spread as Dodgers Continue Struggle

Put it this way: The Angels defeated the Dodgers, 6-5, Sunday and it is almost easier to explain how the Dodgers lost an inelegant finale of their interleague renewal than how the Angels won.

The Dodgers lost--”We allowed them to win,” Manager Jim Tracy said--because. . . .

* They made three errors, two of which led to unearned runs.

* They popped up two sacrifice bunt attempts, the first compounded by a runner being doubled off second base to short-circuit a potentially big seventh inning.

* They are being forced to start two of their most effective relief pitchers--Giovanni Carrara and Terry Adams--and, thus, are vulnerable in the late innings of close games.

In this one, Gregg Olson (5.64 earned-run average) and Eric Gagne (5.91) provided something of a panacea for the struggling Anaheim offense.

Olson gave up a two-run homer to Darin Erstad in the seventh, and Gagne gave up a game-winning homer to Garret Anderson in the 10th, allowing the Angels to win two of three despite going four for 34 with runners in scoring position during the series.

In fact, until Anderson’s ninth home run proved decisive, he had combined with Troy Glaus and Tim Salmon to go two for 14 Sunday with seven strikeouts in the middle of the order, a deadly microcosm of a season in which only the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Devil Rays have scored fewer runs among the 14 American League teams. The Angels remain 17 games behind the unworldly Seattle Mariners in the West, wasting better pitching than anyone could have expected.

The Angels, of course, continue to believe their offense will come alive, but the clock is ticking.

“We’re going to hit, that’s not a concern,” said Erstad, who had three of his team’s 10 hits Sunday.

“I’m not concerned about it. When it will happen, I don’t know, but the bottom line is winning, and we’ve been doing that pretty well lately.”

The Angels have won nine of 11. They won Friday night despite scoring only one run in Carrara’s five innings, and they won Sunday despite scoring only one and striking out nine times in the six innings that Adams pitched.

It has been pointed out that the Dodgers are walking a tightrope with Kevin Brown and Andy Ashby on the disabled list and still no timetable for their return. Carrara and Adams are getting stronger and more comfortable in their emergency starting roles, but the Dodgers, in a dogfight in the National League West, can’t afford to give away the games that Carrara and Adams pitch well enough to win.

“I’m not pleased with the way we executed, but we have to move on,” Tracy said. “We’re in the middle of a pennant race, we’re in the thick of things.”

True enough, but even Tracy was finding it hard to move on. The normally circumspect manager was pointedly clear in saying the Dodgers made “too many miscues” and “created the opportunities” that allowed the Angels to prevail.

He could count the ways.

A two-out, first-inning error by Paul Lo Duca--the catcher who is replacing injured Eric Karros at first base--gave the Angels an unearned run.

A popped-up sacrifice attempt by Lo Duca in the seventh was caught by diving pitcher Lou Pote, who doubled a wandering Hiram Bocachica off second, the first two outs of an inning in which the Dodgers went on to score once and leave the bases loaded.

A ninth-inning error by shortstop Jeff Reboulet, who first bobbled Orlando Palmeiro’s grounder up the middle and then, rather than simply hold the ball with no chance for the out, threw wildly to first, allowed Palmeiro to reach second and score the fifth and tying run on a Jorge Fabregas single.

A popped-up sacrifice attempt by Mark Grudzielanek that a diving Erstad, having moved from center field to first base, caught after Lo Duca had opened the bottom of the ninth with a single.

“We hurt ourselves defensively and with our inability to get a bunt down,” Tracy said. “We scored one run in the seventh, and that could have and should have been a big inning.”

Given their offensive struggle, the Angels know about could-haves and should-haves. As Manager Mike Scioscia noted, his team is not 17 games back because of pitching. In fact, an oft-criticized rotation has been baseball’s best over the last 15 games. The starters have compiled a 2.31 ERA in that span, failing to go at least 6 2/3 innings only twice.

Jarrod Washburn, who had pitched at least seven innings in three of his last four starts, was not quite as sharp Sunday. He gave up a two-run homer to Gary Sheffield and a two-run double to Adrian Beltre, two potentially reviving hitters critical to the Dodger hopes. Nevertheless, only two of the runs off Washburn in his five-inning stint were earned, and the Dodgers scored only one more run over the final five innings, with the invincible Troy Percival getting the last three out for his 16th save in 16 opportunities.

If the starters retain their grooves and the offense comes alive, the Angels still have a shot at the wild card. The offense, however, has been a mystery, which is maybe why the usually laconic Anderson was smiling as he circled the bases after his 10th-inning home run.

“It was just nice to do something to help the team out,” he said. “I haven’t been doing my job with the consistency I’m used to and the three of us in the middle certainly didn’t do our share today.”

Maybe not, but instead of having to share the blame on a long afternoon, it was the Dodgers who did.