Need for Leadoff Hitter Affects Gil’s Starts

Benji Gil hit .343 in his first 23 games, which is 121 points better than his .222 career average. He drove in 13 runs, which is only 10 fewer than he had in 110 games last season. And he still lost his starting shortstop job to David Eckstein last week.

But Manager Mike Scioscia’s decision wasn’t so much a reflection on Gil as it was on the Angels’ desperate need for a leadoff batter after Darin Erstad moved to the second spot April 24.

Eckstein showed he could handle the shortstop position defensively, and he’s clearly the most qualified Angel to lead off, so Gil had to yield.

“The frustrating part is you want to be out there and contributing,” said Gil, who started at shortstop Wednesday night for the first time since May 1. “Unfortunately they only have two middle infield positions. If they had a rover, maybe I’d get a chance to play more.”

If Gil made more consistent contact and was more selective at the plate--he has 13 strikeouts and one walk this season--he would have been considered for the leadoff spot. Eckstein had a team-leading .415 on-base percentage going into Wednesday night’s game.

“I am what I am, and that’s not a prototypical leadoff batter,” said Gil, who had a double and three singles Wednesday to raise his average to .380. “The results speak for themselves. You see the guys out there doing a tremendous job, and that makes it a little easier.”

One other fact eased the frustration of not starting for eight days. “My average hasn’t dropped in the last week,” Gil said.

Hard to tell who was more stunned--White Sox Manager Jerry Manuel by Angel left-hander Jarrod Washburn’s perfect game through five innings Tuesday night or Washburn by Manuel’s comment after the game.

“We looked at the stats in the course of [Washburn] being perfect,” Manuel said, alluding to Washburn’s 7.04 earned-run average, “and we were mystified that we didn’t have a baserunner.”

Washburn did a double take when he saw that one in Wednesday’s papers.

“I had to read it again because I thought I read it wrong,” he said. “I couldn’t believe a manager said something like that. Managers are usually conservative in their quotes. But I thought it was kind of funny. I got a good laugh out of it.”

Derrick Turnbow, one of the Angels’ top pitching prospects, underwent surgery Wednesday to have two pins placed in his fractured bone in his right forearm, an injury he suffered at double-A Arkansas in April. Turnbow, who spent the 2000 season in the Angel bullpen, will begin therapy next week and is not expected to throw for at least three months. . . . Glenallen Hill, sidelined by a strained left oblique muscle, experienced a little stiffness after Wednesday’s workout but is still on course to be activated this weekend.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

SCOTT SCHOENEWEIS

(2-2, 3.24 ERA)

vs.

WHITE SOX’S

ROCKY BIDDLE

(1-1, 3.86 ERA)

Comiskey Park, Chicago, 5 p.m.

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

Update--Schoeneweis has done an excellent job against left-handed hitters this season, limiting them to a .151 average in his first seven starts. White Sox slugger Frank Thomas, who missed last week’s series in Anaheim because of a triceps injury, joined the team Wednesday after traveling to his home in Columbus, Ga., because of the death of his father. Thomas is expected to be in the lineup tonight.