Callaway Makes a Striking Return

One and done? If players strike Friday and do not return this season, Mickey Callaway’s triumphant return to the major leagues will not be followed by an encore.

In his first major league start in three years, pitching in a pennant race and against a Cy Young Award contender, Callaway neutralized Derek Lowe and the Boston Red Sox.

Callaway received no decision, but he recovered from a rocky start and held the Red Sox to two earned runs over six innings.

Callaway, 27, promoted from triple-A Salt Lake to replace the injured Aaron Sele, arrived in Boston on Saturday and figured a good night’s sleep would be in order. He turned out the lights at 10 p.m., but a good night’s sleep eluded him.

“The last time I looked at the clock, it was 2:30,” he said.

With adrenaline substituting for rest, he did fine. He did not appear long for the game in the first inning; third baseman Troy Glaus made a terrific play for the first out, but the next four batters reached base. With one run in, one out and the bases loaded, Brian Daubach grounded into a double play.

“I knew I could get a ground ball in that situation, and I did,” Callaway said. “My confidence was high the whole time.”

The Angels acquired him from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for minor league infielder Wilmy Caceres last December, not that anyone noticed at the time. Callaway had spent all or part of the previous four seasons in triple A, and “Devil Ray discard” is not a coveted label.

But since he made his major league debut for the Devil Rays in 1999, Callaway said he has evolved from a pitcher who throws mostly fastballs and the occasional sinker to one who mixes a fastball, sinker, split-finger and changeup and works the corners of the strike zone. He credited Joe Coleman, a former Angel pitching coach now working for the Devil Rays, with teaching him the new pitches.

Callaway is scheduled to start again Friday, the day the players’ union set as its strike date. If there is no strike, Callaway could remain in the rotation through September.

Although the Angels hope Sele can strengthen his partially torn rotator cuff and return within three weeks, Manager Mike Scioscia acknowledged Sunday that the Angels aren’t counting on it.

“He’s a big piece of our rotation for the next couple of years,” Scioscia said. “We don’t want to jeopardize a guy’s career.”

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Kevin Uhlich, the Angels’ senior vice president of business operations, said the team has discussed contingency plans in the event of a strike but does not anticipate any layoffs among the approximately 150 full-time employees in the front office.

Some of those employees--in areas such as finance and human resources--work for both the Angels and Disney’s other sports team, the Mighty Ducks. If a strike becomes lengthy, Uhlich said the Angels’ sales and marketing employees could be deployed on behalf of the Ducks. The Ducks had the lowest attendance in the NHL next season.

The strike would hit game-day employees the hardest. Those vendors, ushers, parking attendants and ticket takers are typically adults in need of a second income beyond their full-time job or senior citizens whose only employment is part-time.

“When we don’t have an event, they don’t work,” Uhlich said. “That’s unfortunate.”

Other than not using game-day employees, he said the Angels have limited flexibility in cutting costs during a short strike. Most of the advertising budget has been spent for this season, the minor league seasons end this week, and the modest expense of keeping scouts home from major league games in September pales in comparison to the money already spent in sending scouts to high school, college, minor league and major league games the rest of the year.

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TONIGHT

ANGELS’

RAMON ORTIZ

(10-9, 4.10 ERA)

vs.

RED SOX’S

JOHN BURKETT

(10-7, 4.68 ERA)

Fenway Park, 4 PDT

TV--Channel 9, 5 PDT.

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

Update-- In his last four starts, Burkett is 0-4 with a 9.78 ERA. The Angels are 20-1 when leadoff hitter David Eckstein scores at least two runs.