Angels Lack Power to Light Up Scoreboard

Troy Glaus returns to the Angel lineup tonight, and not a moment too soon.

Glaus, suspended for the last two games, has hit three home runs this season. No one else on the team has hit one, a power outage that grew increasingly apparent in Tuesday’s 5-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners scored the decisive runs on a home run, not one hit by a slugger such as Bret Boone or Edgar Martinez, but by the Mariners’ No. 9 hitter, Mark McLemore. With John Halama and three relievers teaming on a four-hitter, Seattle extended its Edison Field winning streak to 10 games before an announced crowd of 17,210.

The Angels sure could use a home run from someone, from anyone, besides Glaus. The only major league teams to hit fewer home runs so far this season are the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates, teams that do not fancy themselves contenders.

“Our winning is not contingent on Troy Glaus being in the lineup every day,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “If it is, we’re in trouble.

“But these guys can hit. They haven’t forgotten how to hit.”

The Angels’ earned-run average of 4.00 is the best in the American League West, so pitching alone cannot win the division. Their batting average of .218 is the worst.

“You either come out of the gate firing or you come out cold. We’ve come out of the gate cold, with the exception of Troy,” outfielder Darin Erstad said. “Troy basically won two games for us in Texas.

“But it will come together.”

They won two games in Texas, with Glaus homering once in a 3-1 victory and twice in a 6-3 victory. Otherwise, they’re 1-4.

Of the nine starters, six are batting under .250--Bengie Molina (.238), Garret Anderson (.222), Erstad (.214), Adam Kennedy (.130), Tim Salmon (.125) and Scott Spiezio (.125).

Scioscia was in no mood to tip his cap to the opposing pitching. Halama, the kind of soft-tossing left-hander that all too typically bedevils the Angels, scattered four hits over six innings. The Angels drew one walk and failed to work the count, with Halama throwing just 73 pitches and barely breaking a sweat.

“That was a poor offensive performance,” Scioscia said. “No way we can sugarcoat that. We didn’t put any pressure on him.”

Had the Angels not played little ball, they would have been shut out. Jose Nieves, starting at third base in place of Glaus, doubled to start the fifth inning. Kennedy sacrificed him to third, David Eckstein followed with a sacrifice fly, and that was the extent of the offense.

Kevin Appier lost for the first time since July, though he pitched one of his finest games since July.

Appier did not lose in his final 12 starts for the New York Mets last season. In his debut for the Angels, who acquired him for Mo Vaughn in December, Appier received a no decision in a 7-5 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

He took the loss Tuesday, but he deserved better. He and Halama matched zeroes through four innings, and the Angels gave him a 1-0 lead in the fifth.

But Appier, who held the Mariners to one hit from the second through the fifth innings, gave up two to start the sixth and gave up the lead as well. Ben Davis doubled, and the Angels anticipated McLemore might bunt. So Appier threw a high fastball, and McLemore hit it out.

“I threw a good anti-bunt pitch,” Appier said. “He wound up swinging, and he hit it real good.”

In all, Appier pitched seven innings, giving up five hits and only those two runs while striking out six.

He outlasted Halama, although Halama did nothing wrong. He turned in six innings and turned over a 2-1 lead to the Seattle bullpen, with Mariner Manager Lou Piniella following the victory script of Jeff Nelson pitching the seventh, Arthur Rhodes the eighth and Kazuhiro Sasaki the ninth.

Brendan Donnelly, the Angels’ 30-year-old rookie, made his major league debut in the eighth inning and struck out Jeff Cirillo before giving up three runs in the ninth. Donnelly arrived in Anaheim after a 10-year minor league career that included stops--in one year alone--in Altoona, Pa.; Durham, N.C.; Nashua, N.H., and Syracuse, N.Y.