Glaus Is Still Mired in Slump at the Plate

The fate of the Angel offense may not rest on Troy Glaus’ shoulders, but he certainly could lend a helping hand, as he did the first two months before his annual slump took hold.

“Troy is just a piece to the puzzle, he’s not the whole puzzle,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

Actually, Glaus is a puzzle. He brutalized pitchers through May, but since has taken more of a Gandhi-like stance at the plate.

Glaus was hitting .286 when June began but his average has dropped to .242.

“Troy is a player who has very high peaks and down spells a little deeper than others,” Scioscia said. “You have to evaluate an entire season. You have to look at the number of runs he scored and the number of runs he drives in. He is on pace to score 100 runs and drive in 110 or so.”

Yet, the majority of that work was pre-June. He has 11 runs and 11 runs batted in in 34 games since May. He has only four home runs in that time.

Glaus’ “bump in the road” has been a yearly occurrence.

Lifetime, he has hit .223 in June, .220 in July and .246 in August. Glaus has 15 home runs and 58 RBIs this season.

Glaus had a single in four at-bats Sunday, but struck out with a runner on first and no out in the ninth inning.

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The Major League Baseball Players’ Assn. is contemplating setting a strike date but Scioscia, who went through two as a player, seems somewhat hopeful.

“These things tend to get worked out at the 11th hour,” Scioscia said. “If it doesn’t, baseball will crash and burn for a while. But they haven’t pulled the plug on things just yet.”

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Scioscia tinkered with his starting rotation for the second half.

Jarrod Washburn will start Thursday in Kansas City, followed by Kevin Appier, Aaron Sele and Ramon Ortiz.

John Lackey is scheduled to open the Minnesota series next Monday.

“The biggest issue was we wanted to see if there were any matchups with clubs and pitchers we could take advantage of,” Scioscia said. “That didn’t materialize. We also wanted to see if everyone came out of their last starts OK, just in case someone needed an extra day to get ready.”

Angel starters have been solid, going at least six innings in 61 of the team’s 86 games.