A Loss Deep in Heart to Texas

Scott Schoeneweis started talking about the fateful sixth inning Tuesday night and the Angel pitcher kept going and going and going, kind of like the Texas Rangers during their five-run rally, when they sent 11 to the plate and scored four runs on a collection of cheap hits that belonged on the shelf of a 99-cent store.

Included in the rally was Ricky Ledee’s two-run chopper up the middle, Mike Lamb’s game-tying, bloop run-scoring single and Ivan Rodriguez’s go-ahead, run-scoring infield single, hits that helped the Rangers erase a four-run deficit and defeat the Angels, 7-5, before 31,158 at the Ballpark in Arlington.

“I made one mistake that [Rafael] Palmeiro hooked down the line [for a double in the fourth inning]; other than that, I didn’t make any bad pitches,” said Schoeneweis, who lost despite tying a career high with nine strikeouts. “I did everything I wanted to in that game. When guys got on, I made good pitches.

“I made good pitches to [Alex Rodriguez in the sixth] and walked him. Palmeiro hits a chopper over the first baseman’s head [for a double]. I pitch around [Andres] Galarraga, get the double-play ball [from Ledee] and it squeaks through. [Lamb] gets a bloop hit, they score another run. They score the go-ahead run on a chopper over the mound.

“It’s like it was predetermined; they were destined to win. Why didn’t [David] Eckstein’s chopper go over the infielder’s head [in the eighth] and theirs did? How do you explain me striking out nine and losing? The planets must be aligned for me to strike out nine. There must have been some kind of eclipse in there, too. You can’t explain it. It drives me crazy.”

When Schoeneweis’ rambling postgame diatribe was over, he had to sit down, probably to catch his breath. It was almost as exhausting as the sixth inning, when Schoeneweis couldn’t hold a 5-1 lead.

Ivan Rodriguez quickly made it 5-2 when he lined Schoeneweis’ first pitch of the sixth into the left-field seats for his 14th homer.

Alex Rodriguez walked, and Palmeiro chopped his double to right, moving Rodriguez to third. Schoeneweis struck out Gabe Kapler looking and pitched around Galarraga, walking him to load the bases.

The Angels liked the next matchup: Left-handed hitting Ledee against Schoeneweis, who limited lefties to a .149 average in his first 13 games. So much for the percentages--Ledee grounded a two-run single to center, pulling the Rangers within 5-4.

Michael Young flied to the corner in right, Galarraga taking third, but Lamb, the No. 9 batter and another left-hander, blooped a single to center for a run batted in and a 5-5 tie.

Scioscia pulled Schoeneweis for right-hander Ben Weber, who walked pinch-hitter Frank Catalanotto to load the bases. Ivan Rodriguez followed with a chopper over the mound that Eckstein, the Angel shortstop, made a fine bare-handed grab of, but his throw to first wasn’t in time, and Texas led, 6-5.

Ivan Rodriguez added an insurance run with a solo homer off Lou Pote in the eighth, Eckstein’s chopper with runners at first and second was turned into an inning-ending, 5-3 double play in the eighth, and the Angels remained 7 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the wild-card standings.

“They stole that game, plain and simple,” Schoeneweis said. “They need to go home and whatever they’re doing, keep doing it, because that was a joke. I-Rod is a great hitter--I’ll give him that homer--but the rest of it was just luck.”

The Angels gave Schoeneweis a cushion with three runs in the first on Adam Kennedy’s two-run homer and Tim Salmon’s RBI single, only his fourth hit in 51 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Salmon also singled with Darin Erstad on second in the third inning, but Alex Rodriguez’s diving stop prevented Erstad from scoring.

Galarraga’s sacrifice fly in the fourth made it 3-1, but Garret Anderson smashed a two-run homer in the fifth for a 5-1 lead. Then came the sixth, when--as Manager Mike Scioscia said--every hit had eyes.

“There was nothing more I could have done to give us a chance to win,” Schoeneweis said. “Games like that make you realize what the game is about, that 75% of this game is luck. They bring you back to reality.”

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