Eckstein Gets a Good Dusting

Gritty shortstop David Eckstein loves it when his uniform is covered with dirt. “It’s usually a sign that things have gone well that day,” the Angel leadoff batter said.

Grime didn’t pay Wednesday, though. Eckstein was filthy by the second inning, but only because Oriole pitcher Willis Roberts put him flat on his back with an 0-and-1 pitch that nearly hit him in the head.

As Eckstein fell in the batter’s box to avoid being struck, the ball hit his bat, putting him in an 0-and-2 hole that eventually led to a strikeout. Roberts’ first pitch of the game had hit Eckstein in the left shoulder, making Eckstein feel as if the 22 on his back had been replaced with a bull’s-eye.

Angel starter Scott Schoeneweis apparently felt that way too. In the bottom of the third, he drilled Oriole shortstop Mike Bordick in the back with a 1-and-1 fastball in apparent retaliation.

Home plate umpire Brian O’Nora immediately warned both benches that the next hit batsman would result in an ejection, and Angel Manager Mike Scioscia came out to argue.

“Our intent was not to throw at Bordick,” Scioscia said, though many in the Oriole clubhouse would disagree. “Their guy hit our leadoff batter in the first inning and then threw a pitch behind his head, and I took issue with that. . . . The time for a warning had come and gone.”

Roberts is an emotional rookie from the Dominican Republic who has been known to loose his cool at times, but Eckstein, a rookie who crowds the plate the way New York Yankee leadoff batter Chuck Knoblauch does, did not take issue with Roberts.

“I don’t think any of it was intentional,” Eckstein said. “Why would he want to hit me [in the second inning] and put runners on first and third with [Darin] Erstad coming up? People want to come in on me. That’s part of the game sometimes.”

Scioscia did not have as tough a day as Schoeneweis, who was ripped for 11 runs in four innings, but it was almost as exasperating. After his argument with O’Nora, Scioscia rushed onto the field later in the second inning to argue umpire Chuck Meriwether’s safe call on Bordick’s stolen base. In the fifth, Scioscia argued first-base umpire Bill Welke’s safe call on Jerry Hairston’s infield single. One more dispute, with second-base umpire John Hirschbeck, and Scioscia would have argued for the cycle.

TODAY

ANGELS’

RAMON ORTIZ

(3-3, 4.08 ERA)

vs.

ORIOLES’

JASON JOHNSON

(3-2, 3.44 ERA)

Camden Yards, Baltimore, 4 p.m. PDT

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

Update--Like Schoeneweis on Wednesday, Ortiz will take the mound today having not pitched in seven days. The right-hander rebounded nicely from two rocky starts against the Detroit Tigers, giving up two runs and four hits and striking out seven in seven innings of a 4-2 victory over Toronto on May 17. Johnson, the Oriole right-hander, went 1-10 last season but added a forkball over the winter and now has the lowest ERA among Baltimore starters.