Going Out on Top?

The Angels, for one of the few times in franchise history, find themselves in an enviable position.

If the season were to end today, they would be in the playoffs.

The problem is there might not be any playoffs.

If that wasn’t frustrating enough, the Angels can become the first team to lose a series to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in two months. The Devil Rays rallied from a four-run deficit for an 8-5, 10-inning victory in front of 17,740 at Edison Field on Wednesday, quite a feat for the team with the worst record in baseball.

The Angels wasted chances, stranding 11 runners, seven in scoring position. Second baseman Adam Kennedy made a key error, allowing the tying run to score in the eighth. Their bullpen, which has the league’s best earned-run average, squandered a big lead for the second time in three games.

Scott Schoeneweis and Al Levine stumbled when called on. Schoeneweis let a 5-3 lead get away in the eighth and Levine gave up three runs in the 10th.

As a result, another Devil Ray victory today and they will win their first series since taking two of three from Baltimore at the end of June.

“Tonight was one that got away, that’s all you can say,” Angel Manger Mike Scioscia said. “We have been very, very good at holding leads or else we wouldn’t be in the position we are in now.”

The position the Angels are in now has them four games behind Oakland in the AL West and a half-game ahead of Seattle in the wild-card race. But the position that will determine the Angels’ fate is the one that will be taken in New York, where negotiations continue to head off Friday’s strike deadline.

“I focus on today,” Darin Erstad said. “Yesterday is over and tomorrow is too far ahead. We pay people to do the negotiating. I just play baseball. My focus is on the game tonight.”

Said Scioscia: “Obviously, the closer the deadline gets, the more it is in your head.”

The Devil Rays would be a team that could benefit from a strike. At least it would save them the pain of playing the final month of the season. Beyond that? Well, labor pains and contractions do go together.

Commissioner Bud Selig has talked about “six to eight teams that could go out of business in 18 months” and the Devil Rays are believed to be on that list. But for now, they merely remain American League chum.

Still, even bottom feeders have their feasts and the Devil Rays chewed up the Angel bullpen Wednesday.

The Angels, who let a four-run lead get away in a 10-9 loss to Boston on Monday, blew a 5-1 lead Wednesday. Jarrod Washburn took the four-run lead into the seventh but left after giving up a single to John Flaherty and a home run to Ben Grieve. Washburn, trying to become the Angels’ first 16-game winner since 1993, turned things over to the bullpen. Nothing went right from then on.

Ben Weber got through the inning, but only after being hit on the left shin with a grounder. Weber suffered a contusion and was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center for X-rays.

In the eighth, Schoeneweis faced three batters with no success. He walked Andy Sheets to start the inning and Randy Winn followed with a double. Aubrey Huff then tapped a grounder just out of Schoeneweis’ reach. Kennedy charged and fielded the ball but threw wild to first. Sheets and Winn scored to make it a 5-5 tie.

Levine gave up four consecutive hits to start the 10th, including Jared Sandberg’s booming double that gave the Devil Rays a 6-5 lead. The Angel bullpen has given up 12 runs in the last three games.

“Every bullpen goes through this,” Washburn said. “I have 100% confidence in any one of those guys. They just didn’t get it done tonight.”

The Angel batters didn’t get it done either. They had chances early to put the game away, but Kennedy’s two-run triple was the only clutch hit they could muster through five innings.

In the fifth, the Devil Rays helped out. The Angels had only one hit in the inning--a run-scoring double by David Eckstein--but scored three runs. A wild pitch and a hit batter helped set up the inning. Second baseman Felix Escalona’s throwing error on Erstad’s grounder let in two runs.