Naturally, Losing Angels Hate Dome

The Angels ought to contribute a few bucks toward the Minnesota Twins’ drive for a new ballpark, one with grass and a view of the heavens. They can’t tear down the Metrodome soon enough for the Angels, who lost a game Saturday because of a freak bounce on artificial turf and almost lost their center fielder because some genius decided the color of the roof ought to be the same color as a baseball.

This is not to detract from the abilities of the Twins, leaders of the American League Central. They beat the Angels for the fourth time in six tries this season, this one a 4-2 victory that featured three hits from Jacque Jones and a home run from Cristian Guzman.

There is no dishonor in losing to the Twins. Still, the Angels couldn’t help muttering about the Twins’ dome-field advantage.

Kevin Appier shut out Minnesota for the first five innings, and the Twins’ Torii Hunter doubled home the tying run in the sixth. With two out and a runner on third in the seventh, Jones dragged a bunt along the first-base line. Instead of hugging the turf, the ball bounced high enough that Appier appeared likely to field it and throw out Jones to end the inning.

Appier ran to the spot where he expected to field the ball. Too bad.

“It just went straight up instead of coming towards me,” he said.

On the second bounce, with catcher Bengie Molina telling him to let the ball roll foul, Appier picked it up, with absolutely no chance to throw out the speedy Jones.

“It was going foul, no doubt about it,” Molina said.

Said Appier: “It didn’t seem like it was going foul. You grab it because you never know what’s going on. He [Jones] might fall down or whatever.”

As Jones reached first base, A.J. Pierzynski scored from third. The Twins led, 2-1, and, on the next pitch, Guzman homered. Appier departed, tagged with the loss after giving up four runs in 62/3 innings.

“It was definitely one of my best-pitched bad games,” he said.

The Angels scored once in the second inning, on a double by Brad Fullmer, and once in the ninth, on a home run by Tim Salmon. They then put the tying runs on base with none out against Minnesota closer Eddie Guardado, with David Eckstein available to bat for either Benji Gil or Adam Kennedy.

With Gil prized for his ability to hit left-handers and Kennedy hitting all comers lately, Angel Manager Mike Scioscia left Eckstein on the bench. Gil (0 for 6 against Guardado) struck out, and Kennedy (2 for 8) grounded into a game-ending double play. (Eckstein is 1 for 3 against Guardado.)

The Angels were horribly frightened in the fourth inning, with their leader and center fielder face down on the turf after colliding with Gil, the shortstop.

Darin Erstad missed eight games in April while recovering from a concussion. The Angels are 21-8 since he returned, and they do not consider their resurgence a coincidence.

With two out in the fourth, Minnesota’s Bobby Kielty hit a pop fly into shallow center field, and Erstad and Gil could not look for each other because they feared looking away would mean losing the white ball against the white roof.

As Gil caught the ball, Erstad fell beneath him. Gil’s lower right leg slammed into Erstad’s face, and his spikes caught Erstad’s right arm.

Erstad remained face down for several minutes. “I got my bell rung,” he said.

He eventually rose and walked off the field. He remained in the game, with gashes above his left eye, on his nose and on the arm; trainers could not stop all the bleeding before his next at-bat.

“I had blood dripping down the side of my face while I was at the plate,” he said.

Left fielder Garret Anderson lost a fly ball in the roof, and Kennedy avoided losing another by chasing a pop fly from second base into left-center. In the first game of the series, Salmon’s foul pop caromed off a speaker, and Guardado caught it for an out.

New ballpark? If you build it, the Angels will be happy to come.