Loss Isn’t Only Problem for Angels

Batting instructor Mickey Hatcher and first baseman Wally Joyner were the lucky ones Thursday night.

They didn’t have to watch most of the Angels’ ugly, angst-filled 6-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles before 34,555 in Camden Yards because they were both ejected by home-plate umpire Bill Welke in the first three innings.

The postscript wasn’t any prettier. The frustration of a loss that dropped the Angels 13 games behind Seattle in the American League West boiled over when losing pitcher Ramon Ortiz got into a heated argument with catcher Bengie Molina and first-base coach Alfredo Griffin in a clubhouse dining room.

Molina, who is on the disabled list, said the brief verbal altercation stemmed from a joke about the game that Ortiz took the wrong way.

“We were trying to cheer him up a little bit, but he didn’t think it was funny,” Molina said. “He was [ticked off], but after we explained that it was a joke, he understood.”

Ortiz, who gave up six runs on 10 hits in six shaky innings to fall to 3-4, said he didn’t have a problem with Molina or Griffin. With Griffin at his side, Ortiz said, “He was joking. It was funny.” A stone-faced Ortiz was not smiling when he said this.

Manager Mike Scioscia was in his office, addressing reporters after the game, when Ortiz’s distinctive high-pitched, fast-paced Spanish voice pierced the clubhouse. But after speaking to those involved, Scioscia said, “It’s a nonissue.”

The clubhouse dissonance seemed to reflect the mood on the field Thursday night, as the Angels spent much of the evening at odds with the umpires and the Orioles, with whom some bad blood has developed.

Hatcher, befuddled by the Angels’ season-long inability to generate much offense, took out some frustration on Welke and was ejected for questioning a called third strike to Joyner to end the top of the first.

Joyner followed Hatcher to the clubhouse two innings later. After a first-pitch fastball was called for a high strike, Joyner, who disputed a Welke call at first base in Wednesday’s game, began jawing with Welke and was tossed.

The ensuing argument grew so heated Joyner had to be restrained by third-base coach Ron Roenicke and Griffin.

“I don’t think I was given an opportunity to play the game tonight,” Joyner said. “It’s no fun when you get the bat taken out of your hands.”

Asked if he thought umpires can carry a grudge from one day to the next, Joyner said, “I’ve heard rumors of that.”

When these teams meet again in late July, it could be a grudge match. In the series opener Wednesday, Angel shortstop David Eckstein was hit by one pitch and had another whiz past his head, and Oriole shortstop Mike Bordick was hit by a pitch in apparent retaliation.

Ortiz hit two batters Thursday night, one with a high-and-tight fastball that came close to David Segui’s face in the fifth inning. Ortiz was issued a warning, a Welke decision that Scioscia disputed.

Segui responded by leg-whipping Eckstein at second base on a routine forceout to end the inning and exchanging verbal barbs with players in the Angel dugout as he came off the field.

“I didn’t think that was necessary,” Angel second baseman Adam Kennedy said of Segui’s hard slide. “But he had a right to be mad, with the way guys were getting thrown at, especially around the head.”

Asked if there was bad blood between the teams, Kennedy said, “It looks like it . . . we play them, what, seven more times this year? Who knows?”

Oriole starter Jason Johnson hit one batter Thursday, but that was with an inside fastball that barely grazed Tim Salmon in the second. Otherwise, the right-hander was sharp, giving up three runs on eight hits in seven innings to improve to 4-2.

Baltimore took a 3-1 lead in the second on Jay Gibbon’s three-run homer, but the Angels tied it, 3-3, on Troy Glaus’ two-run homer in the third. Consecutive two-out singles by Jeff Conine, Segui and Cal Ripken put Baltimore in front, 4-3, in the third, and the Orioles tacked on two more runs to make it 6-3 in the sixth.

The Angels threatened in the ninth when Kennedy and Shawn Wooten walked and Eckstein hit a two-out RBI single off Mike Trombley. But left-hander B.J. Ryan came on to retire Darin Erstad on a game-ending forceout, sending the Angels to their fourth loss in five games.