Reaching .500 Mark Is Half the Battle

The Angels have spent the last six weeks trying to reach the .500 mark, but every time that break-even point seems within reach, they break down.

This weekend started with two victories over the hapless Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and a sweep of baseball’s worst team--certainly conceivable considering the opponent--would have moved the Angels to within a game of .500.

Then the Angels made winless pitcher Bryan Rekar look like a Cy Young Award winner, Orlando Palmeiro was blinded by the lights on Gerald Williams’ 10th-inning, game-winning hit, and the Angels fell to 22-26 Sunday.

“Our goal is to get back to .500 and start climbing from there, but we keep stumbling,” Angel first baseman Scott Spiezio said. “We’ll get there eventually. Our pitching has been pretty consistent, but our hitting hasn’t. Hopefully, the two will click together.”

Contributions from Spiezio, whose bat has been as quiet as crowds at Tropicana Field, will help. Spiezio had two hits, including his first home run, in Friday’s 6-4 win over the Devil Rays, and the switch-hitter had two hits and scored two runs in Sunday’s 4-3 loss.

With the Angels trailing, 3-2, and one out in the ninth, Spiezio lined a gapper to left-center. When the ball took an odd carom off the wall, Spiezio stretched the hit into a triple and scored the tying run on Palmeiro’s single.

Spiezio, who has been frustrated by his lack of playing time, improved his average to .231, and four consecutive starts against right-handed pitchers helped him improve his average from the left side to .197.

“I’ve played four in a row,” Spiezio said. “I think that’s a record.”

Actually, Spiezio started six consecutive games from May 2-8.

Angel pitcher Ismael Valdes takes pride in his defense and has likened his reflexes to a cat. But the right-hander didn’t exactly look like King goalie Felix “The Cat” Potvin when Randy Winn’s sixth-inning grounder went through his five-hole.

With runners on second and third and two outs, Winn hit a sharp grounder up the middle that went through Valdes’ legs and nicked off diving second baseman Adam Kennedy’s glove for a two-run single and a 3-2 Devil Ray lead.

“I should have caught that one,” said Valdes, who gave up three runs on five hits in seven strong innings. “It stayed down a bit. I should have used a bigger glove.”

Reliever Mike Holtz gave up two runs on three hits, including a home run and a double, in one inning of a rehabilitation appearance for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga on Saturday. Designated hitter Glenallen Hill had a double in four at-bats in the same game. . . . Two Devil Ray wild pitches increased their season total to 37, putting them on pace for 119 wild pitches, which would shatter the major league record of 96, set by the 2000 Reds.

TODAY

ANGELS’ SCOTT SCHOENEWEIS

(3-3, 4.48 ERA)

vs.

DEVIL RAYS’ RYAN RUPE

(2-4, 9.00 ERA)

Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Fla., 1:15 p.m. PDT

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

Update--This is an important start for Schoeneweis because the left-hander needs to rebound from his atrocious game in Baltimore on Wednesday, when he was bombed for a franchise-record 11 runs on 12 hits in four innings of a 12-5 loss. Rupe began the season in the Devil Ray rotation but was sent down after a rocky start. In two starts for triple-A Durham, the right-hander went 0-1 with an 0.82 earned-run average. He was recalled after Sunday’s game.