Angels Having Identity Crisis

Was it only six days ago that the Angels staged a dramatic comeback for a 10-inning victory over the three-time defending World Series-champion New York Yankees? Seems like six weeks ago. Or six years ago. That Angel team, circa last Sunday, bears no resemblance to the Angel team that lost to the Minnesota Twins, 4-1, before 12,070 in the Metrodome Friday night, extending their losing streak to four and falling 10 games behind Oakland and virtually out of the wild-card race.

That Angel team used to hit in the clutch. This Angel team, which is batting .223 (29 for 130) on this trip, is one for 13 with runners in scoring position the last two games. That Angel team use to bunch hits together. This one hasn’t had back-to-back hits in 87 consecutive plate appearances over the last 21 innings. That Angel team used to lay down bunts and run the bases aggressively but wisely. This Angel team failed to get a key bunt down Thursday and ran the bases recklessly Friday, when catcher Bengie Molina, perhaps the slowest runner in baseball, was thrown out by 10 feet trying to go from first to third on David Eckstein’s bloop single to center in the fifth inning.

That Angel team, the one that went 23-10 from July 16-Aug. 19, didn’t need a stern tongue-lashing from Manager Mike Scioscia after games. This one did; Scioscia slammed the clubhouse doors for a brief-but-to-the-point meeting Friday night. “I just bounced some things off them,” Scioscia said, insisting he meant words, not objects. “There are some things we’re hoping to do better, things that impact your ability to win games. We’ve done some things that are not fundamentally sound. We have to clean those up.”

Scioscia is not a Larry Bowa type, a manager who overturns tables and hurls chairs into walls, but he may have reached some sort of breaking point Friday night. “I didn’t see him as being upset; like everyone else, he’s frustrated,” said Angel infielder Benji Gil, whose failed sacrifice was costly Thursday night against Kansas City. “He knows we’re trying. Maybe we’re trying to do too much as individuals.

‘Maybe we have to take a step back, take a deep breath and realize when you have an opportunity to do something fundamentally correct, you have to do your part and have confidence in the teammate behind you to do the same thing. Hopefully, his point hits home for all of us and we can get on the same page.”

Compounding the Angels’ offensive woes Friday was the presence of Twins’ ace Brad Radke on the mound. Radke has always been tough on the Angels, and Friday night was no different; the right-hander limited the Angels to one run on seven hits in 72/3 innings, improving to 11-4 with a 1.66 earned-run average in 17 career starts against them.

The Angels couldn’t muster a clutch hit after putting two runners on with two out in the first and second innings, and the Angels helped Radke in the fifth when Molina was thrown out on his ill-advised gallop to third.

“I got a little confused,” Molina said. “I heard Alfredo [Griffin, Angel first base coach] say, ‘Go,’ but he meant go to second because the ball was going to drop, not to third. I was probably thinking I had it made. It was my mistake. I shouldn’t have gone anyway, even if he told me to go.”

Radke gave up a double to Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson’s two-out RBI single in the eighth before yielding to closer Todd Jones, who finished the game for his 16th save.

Angel right-hander Ismael Valdes showed some improvement over his last two starts, when he gave up 12 runs on 15 hits in losses to Boston and New York, but he was no match for Radke.

Minnesota scored once in the first on David Ortiz’s RBI single, once in the second on A.J. Pierzynski’s solo home run, once in the sixth on Corey Koskie’s solo home run, and once in the seventh on Cristian Guzman’s RBI double.