Scioscia Won’t Blame Schedule for Slow Start

An Angel sympathizer could argue that one reason the team is off to such a rocky start is Anaheim’s first 25 games came against Seattle, Cleveland, Toronto, Texas and Oakland, clubs that combined for a 69-54 record in April.

Manager Mike Scioscia’s response: “I don’t buy that at all.”

The Angels are struggling because they hit .243 as a team in April and had trouble manufacturing runs, and because they’ve suffered several lapses on defense and the base paths.

Tuesday marked the beginning of a 24-game stretch in which the Angels will play Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Cleveland, teams that combined for a 64-80 record in April, but Scioscia believes success will be the result of more consistent production, not strength of schedule.

“The teams we’ve played are the teams we have to beat in our division,” Scioscia said. “Where we are right now is not so much a byproduct of us playing upper-echelon clubs because we feel we are an upper-echelon club. We haven’t executed, and we averaged two runs a game for 10 games.”

Has the slow start given Scioscia a new appreciation for the wild card?

“We’re not even thinking about that right now,” he said. “That’s like being in fifth grade and looking ahead to your senior year of high school.”

*

Darin Erstad, who was diagnosed Monday with a mild strain of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee, returned to center field Tuesday night wearing a light knee brace under his uniform.

Erstad, who sat out two weekend games in Toronto, has also been suffering from lower back spasms, and Scioscia believes the injuries have been a factor in his .242 April average.

Though Erstad first injured his knee over the winter and aggravated it April 19, he did not disclose the injury publicly until Monday.

“That’s why he’s such a winner,” Scioscia said. “He could have a blown rotator cuff and not throw a guy out because his shoulder ligament is hanging off the bone, and he’d say he should have made the play.”

Erstad did not hit the ball out of the infield in his four at-bats Tuesday, grounding out three times and striking out once.

*

Ramon Ortiz, who suffered a mild sprain of his right ankle Saturday, and Ismael Valdes, who was forced from last Wednesday’s game in Cleveland after five innings because of a nasty blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand, both threw successful bullpen workouts Tuesday.

Ortiz will make his scheduled start against Chicago on Thursday night, and Valdes will return to the rotation Saturday night against Detroit.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

JARROD WASHBURN

(0-3, 7.56 ERA)

vs.

WHITE SOX’S

JON GARLAND

(4-8, 6.46 ERA in 2000)

Edison Field, 7

TV--ESPN. Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).

* Update--Garland, the right-hander from Kennedy High in Granada Hills, was recalled from triple-A Charlotte on Tuesday to start tonight’s game in place of left-hander Jim Parque, who was put on the 15-day disabled list because of inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Garland went 0-3 with a 2.73 ERA in five triple-A starts. Washburn is looking to rebound from an awful start in Toronto, when he gave up five runs on eight hits and walked six in 4 2/3 innings of a 12-4 loss Friday.

* Tickets--(714) 663-9000.