Rangers Rely on Solo Power

Throwing strikes, Matt Wise said, was the reason he had so much success at triple-A Salt Lake this season. The Angel right-hander focused almost exclusively on control, and his statistics reflected that--Wise struck out 57 and walked only four in 65 1/3 innings.

Can a pitcher throw too many strikes, though?

“Apparently so,” Wise said after giving up four solo home runs in the Angels’ 4-3 loss to the Texas Rangers before 30,337 at the Ballpark in Arlington Thursday night.

“There’s a difference between regular strikes and quality strikes. In the big leagues, they can turn quality pitches into hits. You just can’t let up for one pitch. I don’t think I did that, but I made some mistakes, and they took advantage of them.”

Designated hitter Ruben Sierra, who played for an independent-league team in Atlantic City in 1999 and spent most of 2000 with a Mexican League team in Cancun, hit two of those mistakes for home runs, in the fifth and sixth innings.

Gabe Kapler also homered in the fifth, and Alex Rodriguez homered in the sixth for the Rangers, who needed a solid start from struggling right-hander Rick Helling (two runs, six hits in six innings) and two outstanding defensive plays to thwart the Angels.

With the score tied, 2-2, the Angels loaded the bases with two out in the sixth, but Rodriguez, the Texas shortstop, made a nice backhand stab of David Eckstein’s wicked one-hopper and threw to first to end the inning.

The Angels pulled to within 4-3 in the ninth when pinch-hitter Orlando Palmeiro doubled off closer Jeff Zimmerman, Benji Gil singled and Eckstein hit into an RBI fielder’s choice.

Eckstein stole second as Adam Kennedy swung at and missed a 2-and-2 pitch for the second out. Then Darin Erstad ripped a low liner toward right field, but Ranger first baseman Rafael Palmeiro dived to his right and made the catch, ending the game.

“I knew I hooked it, and it curved toward him,” Erstad said. “Sometimes they fall, sometimes they don’t.”

The Angels had runners at first and second with one out in the first and third innings and failed to score. Troy Glaus, Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon, the fourth, fifth and sixth batters, combined to go 0 for 11, as the Angel offense continued to sputter.

Asked how many games the Angels have played in which their entire offense clicked, Erstad said, “None.”

He’s not exaggerating.

“It’s frustrating, but what are you going to do?” Erstad said. “We had Helling on the ropes, but he made some good pitches in big situations. Eckstein smoked a ball to [Rodriguez] and he made the play. Those are critical plays that didn’t go our way.”

Wise, recalled from Salt Lake to replace the injured Ismael Valdes in the rotation, gave up only five hits in six innings and had a career-high nine strikeouts.

But for the second time in three nights, following Scott Schoeneweis on Tuesday, an Angel starter had a career-high nine strikeouts and wound up losing.

“Matt pitched a heck of a game,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He has nothing to hang his head about.”

If he hadn’t hung a few changeups, Wise might not have lost the 2-0 edge the Angels gave him in the fifth, a rally that included Gil’s double, Eckstein’s infield single, Kennedy’s RBI groundout and Erstad’s RBI double.

But that lead evaporated in the span of five pitches in the bottom of the fifth. Sierra pulverized a 1-and-0 changeup, driving it deep into the right-field seats for a home run, and the next batter, Kapler, homered to left on a 2-and-1 changeup to tie the score.

Rodriguez gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead in the sixth, hitting a towering fly ball to center that barely cleared the wall for his American League-leading 21st home run.

After Palmeiro struck out, Sierra belted his second home run of the night, an opposite-field shot to left that made it 4-2. Wise then caught Kapler looking for his third strikeout of the inning.

“If you’re going to give up home runs, they might as well be solo home runs,” Wise said. “But after that third one, I was getting a little mad.”

The Angels just couldn’t get even.

*

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