Erstad Homers to Lift Angels

No fans. No television cameras. Noteammates.

Four hours before Thursday night’s game, under a blistering hot sun, Darin Erstad stood alone in the batter’s box. Mickey Hatcher, the batting coach, pitched. Erstad swung. Hatcher made a suggestion, Erstad nodded, Hatcher pitched, Erstad swung.

It went on like this for 40 minutes, one of the best hitters in baseball trying to find his lost swing. The fans came. The lights went on. And, for one moment at least, Erstad had found the magic.

With one swing, Erstad won the game for the Angels. He erased a 1-0 deficit with a two-run home run, powering the Angels to a 3-1 victory and a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox before 15,372 at Edison Field.

Ismael Valdes, looking like a steal as a $2.5-million free-agent signee, held the White Sox to one run over seven innings for the victory. Valdes is 2-2 with a 2.45 earned-run average; neither the Angels nor opponents have scored more than three runs in any of his four starts.

Shigetoshi Hasegawa worked the eighth and Troy Percival the ninth, Percival earning his sixth save with a perfect inning that included a strikeout on consecutive pitches timed at 96, 97 and 98 mph.

When Erstad stepped into the batter’s box in the fifth inning, against James Baldwin, he had five hits in his past 45 at-bats (.111) and no hits in his previous 16, fighting to shake off mechanical woes he fell into while compensating for back and knee injuries. After his first hit of the week and his first home run of the season, he refused to declare his slump over.

“Close your eyes enough times, and you’re bound to run into one of them,” said Erstad, a career .301 hitter who hit .355 last season.

“Hopefully, sooner or later, it feels better. When you know what you can do and you can’t do it, it’s very frustrating. It’s embarrassing. And it’s humbling.”

After Erstad circled the bases, his teammates and coaches rose in delight.

“When you see someone who has as much passion as Darin has for the game and you see how much heart he pours into it, you want to see him succeed,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You feel his struggles almost as much as he does. When you see him succeed, you celebrate.”

Slumping players commonly take extra batting practice; managers commonly give those players the day off so they can apply all their energy to the practice. In this case, Scioscia said he did not consider giving Erstad the day off, even after an arduous workout on a sweltering afternoon.

“He doesn’t just keep grinding,” Scioscia said. “He’s working toward a goal. When he gets it, he’s had enough. He prepares himself as well as anybody I’ve ever seen.”

David Eckstein singled home an insurance run in support of Valdes, who walked none and threw an economical 88 pitches. Valdes suffered a slight hamstring pull while covering first base in the sixth inning, but completed the seventh.

Said Scioscia: “This guy is throwing the ball as well as he ever has.”

Only once did Chicago batters reach base consecutively against Valdes, and even then it required a painful asterisk.

With the game still scoreless in the fifth inning, Carlos Lee led off with a single, then stole second base. Harold Baines followed with an apparent double.

As Lee scored, center fielder Erstad threw to second. The throw caromed away from second baseman Adam Kennedy and hopped into the face of Baines, sliding toward the bag.

Baines never got there. The ball hit him in the mouth and knocked him to the ground, where he remained for several moments. Shortstop Eckstein retrieved the ball and tossed it back to Kennedy, who tagged out Baines as the Chicago trainer and manager rushed onto the field.

Baines was dazed and bloodied but left the field under his own power. Baines suffered a laceration inside his mouth and required stitches, but no teeth were displaced or other injury sustained.