Angels’ Schoeneweis Can’t Get Job Done

With the sound of Texas Ranger home-run balls rattling off the seats still ringing in his ears Tuesday night, the last thing Angel left-hander Scott Schoeneweis wanted to hear was someone asking if he was concerned about his spot in the rotation.

“I’ll have a job somewhere,” he told reporters after getting bombed for eight runs in 4 2/3 innings of an 11-5 Texas victory. “If it’s here, it’s here. If it’s not, it’s not.... [Seattle Mariner pitcher] Freddy Garcia gave up 10 runs [Monday night]. Is his job in jeopardy? If I’m not good enough to pitch at this level or pitch here, it’s not going to rule my life. I do everything I’m supposed to do. The results are just not there all the time.”

Schoeneweis ran into a hot Ranger team at The Ballpark in Arlington and the result was Texas’ eighth win in a row and its third in this series, which still has two games remaining. He gave up only four hits, but three of those were home runs. Add in his five walks, and it was a short night for the fourth-year veteran whose record dropped to 6-6 while his earned-run average rose from 4.83 to 5.38.

In all, the Rangers hit four homers and broke the game open with an eight-run fifth, the most runs they’ve scored in an inning and the most given up by the Angels in an inning this season.

Schoeneweis had the early lead. After losing a doubleheader Monday night, the Angels struck first on Bengie Molina’s three-run, second-inning double.

Then came the home-run balls, which were hit by:

* Rafael Palmeiro. His 16th of the season in the second inning put the Rangers on the scoreboard. The ball cleared the center-field wall, landing 409 feet away. It was the 463rd home run of his career, breaking a tie for 23rd on the all-time list with Jose Canseco and Ken Griffey Jr. It was also Palmeiro’s 43rd against the Angels, the most he has hit against any club.

* Ryan Ludwick. His home run, leading off the third, was the rookie’s first in the big leagues.

* Todd Greene. His two-run homer in the fifth inning, his third of the season, landed in the left-field club level 390 feet away, the ninth ball ever to land in that section.

Greene’s homer tied the score, the Angels having gotten their fourth run on Adam Kennedy’s third-inning RBI single.

But Schoeneweis’ problems had just begun. He had walked Kevin Mench before Greene’s home run. He proceeded to walk two more and surrender a single to Ivan Rodriguez to load the bases. Juan Gonzalez’ sacrifice fly brought home the third run of the inning. When Schoeneweis issued his fourth walk of the inning to Palmeiro, Manager Mike Scioscia decided his pitcher had had enough.

In came reliever Lou Pote to fan the flames, walking in one run and throwing a wild pitch to send another home before Mench added the coup de grace , a three-run homer, his seventh of the year.

The beneficiary of the Ranger attack was former Dodger and Angel Ismael Valdes, who gave up four runs in seven innings to improve to 5-6.

“They are my friends,” Valdes said of the Angels. “But when I cross the lines, it is different.”

Scioscia downplayed any speculation Schoeneweis would lose his spot in the rotation. At least for now.

“We are always looking to improve the ballclub,” he said, “but right now, nothing is going to be done.”

Schoeneweis said he wouldn’t look at tape of his performance and wouldn’t let the memory of Tuesday night linger until his next start.

“I don’t think about the good ones when they are over,” he said. “There have been so many bad ones that I don’t think about them either.”

With the successful major league debut Monday of 23-year-old John Lackey, who held the Rangers to three runs in seven innings and showed poise and control, the pressure on Schoeneweis figures to continue.

“When you are going against a good offensive lineup,” Scioscia said, “you put logs on the fire when you walk guys.

“He has made some progress, but we keep waiting for him to put it together the next game and the next. We know what’s inside him, but he has yet to bring that package in every fifth day.”