Hasegawa Can’t Get Out of Rut

An awful trip grew even worse Saturday for Angel reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa, who gave up three runs--two earned--in the eighth inning of a 4-1 loss to the Tigers.

The right-hander failed to preserve a 1-1 tie when he gave up a triple to Bobby Higginson, two walks, an RBI single to Deivi Cruz and a sacrifice fly to Juan Encarnacion.

This came on the heels of two shoddy appearances in Chicago, where Hasegawa gave up a game-tying three-run double to Magglio Ordonez in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s 6-5 loss and a game-tying two-run homer to Sandy Alomar in the eighth inning of Thursday’s 7-6 victory.

After a superb 2000 season, in which he went 10-5 with a 3.48 earned-run average and nine saves in 66 games, Hasegawa is 1-3 with a 5.60 ERA in 15 appearances this season. But Manager Mike Scioscia is not ready to move Hasegawa out of his primary setup role.

“He’s in a rut on this trip, but to take Shige out of his role is not something we’re considering,” Scioscia said. “Our confidence in him hasn’t wavered. Sometimes you have to go through some rough spots to reap the benefits.”

Hasegawa is falling behind too many batters, and when he gets ahead, he’s having trouble putting them away. He also needs to pitch inside more effectively.

“I thought four or five games ago I had it, but then I lost it,” Hasegawa said. “But I’ll be back. I haven’t lost confidence.”

Since getting bombed by the Texas Rangers in his first two starts, Angel right-hander Pat Rapp has lowered his ERA in each of his last six starts. After giving up one unearned run on six hits in seven innings Saturday, his ERA, which was 13.00 on April 10, stood at 5.03.

“Early on, I was trying to throw 100 mph, and my ball doesn’t move nearly as much when I throw hard,” Rapp said. “Today my pitches were cutting a foot, a foot and a half. Guys were swinging and looking at me like, ‘What are you doing with the ball?’ It took two games with a bunch of walks to figure out what I needed to do to get back in a groove.”

The Angels had a chance to break a 1-1 tie when they loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth inning Saturday, but Tim Salmon struck out looking at a nasty Matt Anderson slider on the inside corner.

“It was a front-door slider,” said Salmon, who has one hit in his last 18 at-bats and is batting .214. “It didn’t buckle me, but I knew I couldn’t do much with it. I should have tried to foul it off. It kind of froze me.”

The Angels have given up six unearned runs in two games against the Tigers, four Friday night and two Saturday. Shortstop David Eckstein’s fielding error led to a run in the fourth inning, and catcher Jose Molina’s eighth-inning passed ball allowed the final run to score.

“We’ve made enough mistakes on this trip to make it a bad trip,” Salmon said. “We’ve had a few games get away from us. We haven’t played well as a team.”

Tiger right-hander Victor Santos, in his first major league start, had a no-hitter through five innings Saturday. He gave up only Adam Kennedy’s single in six innings and has not given up an earned run in 22 1/3 innings this season. . . . Detroit extended its win streak to five, only the fifth time in the last six years the Tigers have won five in a row. They’ve had 25 five-game losing streaks in that span. . . . Tiger second baseman Damion Easley sat out Saturday’s game because of tightness in his right hamstring.

TODAY

ANGELS’

JARROD WASHBURN

(1-4, 5.81 ERA)

vs.

TIGERS’

CHRIS HOLT

(3-2, 5.40 ERA)

Comerica Park, Detroit, 10 a.m. PDT

Radio--KMPC (1540), KMXN-FM (94.3), XPRS (1090).

Update--Washburn is coming off his best start of the season, an eight-inning, two-run, three-hit effort in which he struck out six and walked three in a 2-0 loss to the White Sox on Tuesday night. The key for the left-hander was getting ahead of batters--he threw 22 of 30 first-pitch strikes. The Tigers have won 12 of their last 15 games and are 9-3 against American League West teams this season. Bobby Higginson has a 13-game hitting streak.