Schoeneweis Is Feeling Better

Despite suffering back pains, Scott Schoeneweis felt well enough to ride an exercise bike Friday, and the Angel left-hander plans to throw in the bullpen Sunday. That should put him on course to make his next start Wednesday night against Toronto.

Schoeneweis was scratched from Thursday night’s scheduled start against the Chicago White Sox because of lower back spasms, which he believes might have been caused by the fatigue of two consecutive sleepless nights. His back locked up as he stretched before his pregame warmups at Comiskey Park.

Schoeneweis has been fighting a cold and allergies, “and I was wired from all the medication I was taking,” he said. “There was stress from not sleeping, fatigue, I was sweating and was probably dehydrated.

“That was probably the cause, because with the strict regimen I follow [to prevent lower-back problems] and the corrections I’ve made, my back has been fine.”

Though he was still a little sore Friday, Schoeneweis, who is 2-2 with a 3.24 earned-run average in seven starts, felt much better than he did Thursday night. “I can move,” he said.

There were some strange sights in the Angels’ Comerica Park clubhouse Friday afternoon. Injured designated hitter Glenallen Hill sat in a chair with two bats, both wrapped in aluminum foil.

Pitcher Ismael Valdes stood at his locker with his right arm straight out to his side and a sheet of newspaper in his hand. Valdes crumpled the paper into a ball, squeezed it a few times, dropped it and started another.

No, Valdes wasn’t destroying an article he didn’t like. The right-hander said the exercise, which he started doing on his own a few years ago, helps eliminate the soreness and tightness in his arm.

“Willie Stargell used to crumple pieces of newspapers in both hands like that,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said of the late Pittsburgh Pirate slugger. “Different guys get different things out of everything. Some guys need the weight room, some need to crumple up paper.”

And Hill? He wasn’t preparing his bats for the oven. He coated them overnight with pine tar and didn’t want the gooey stuff to get on his teammates’ bats.

Darin Erstad continues to struggle offensively, but the center fielder has maintained his sense of humor. Asked if facing Tiger knuckleballer Steve Sparks would throw off his swing Friday night, Erstad sneered: “What’s there to throw off? I’m hitting .209.”

Erstad, slowed by a knee injury and lower back spasms in April, said his knee is better, “but it’s still not 100%.” His double in the third inning and infield single in the sixth Friday night extended his hitting streak to five games.

“My swing is getting better,” Erstad said. “It’s still a long way from where I want it to be, but I’m happy I can [physically] do the things I want to do. I can handle the 0-fers. I just need to make sure I’m doing something to help the team win.”

Angel first baseman Wally Joyner’s delayed steal of second in the fifth inning Friday night was the 38-year-old’s first stolen base since Sept. 10, 1998, against the Dodgers. . . . Through Thursday, the eighth and ninth batters in the Angel order had combined to hit .342 (77 for 225) with 37 runs and 38 runs batted in, while the first through seventh batters were batting .235 (217 for 925). . . . Outfielder Kimera Bartee, who has been sidelined since March 23 because of a bulging disk in his lower back, will begin a minor league rehabilitation assignment with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga today.

TODAY

ANGELS’ PAT RAPP

(1-3, 5.88 ERA)

vs.

TIGERS’ VICTOR SANTOS

(0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Comerica Park, Detroit, 10 a.m. PDT

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

Update--Santos is a 24-year-old right-hander who has been moved from the bullpen to the rotation to replace injured left-hander Matt Perisho. His best pitch is a changeup, which has helped him yield no earned runs and only 10 hits in 16 1/3 innings of seven relief appearances. Since opening the season with two shoddy starts, Rapp has gone 1-1 with a 3.90 ERA in his last five games. Tiger first baseman Tony Clark has five hits in eight career at-bats against Rapp.