Angels Look Like Red Lite

They booed David Eckstein.

“That is hard to fathom, isn’t it?” Scott Spiezio said.

So this is what life is like as the defending World Series champions. Seldom did opposing fans cheer, jeer or otherwise take notice of the Angels last season. But, in the Angels’ first road game this season, the Oakland fans booed Tim Salmon, Spiezio, even Eckstein.

Nothing personal. No matter how sweet-faced, hard-working and unfailingly pleasant the Angel shortstop is, he wears red. As champions, the Angels finally inspire dislike and disdain among opposing fans.

Then Friday’s game started, and the red-clad Angels turned red-faced. The Oakland Athletics played as the Angels did last season, and the Angels played as they did for so many long and ugly summers before the last one, stumbling badly in a 7-3 defeat.

Salmon momentarily lost a fly ball in the lights, then slid past it, and the ball hit him on the left wrist. Eckstein misplayed a catchable line drive. Third baseman Troy Glaus skipped a throw past first. Salmon and center fielder Darin Erstad nearly collided chasing a fly ball.

The starting pitching was as poor as the fielding. Kevin Appier staggered through four innings and failed to get an out in the fifth. He faced 24 batters, retired 12 and threw a ghastly 108 pitches in the long process.

And the hitting? Four hits, three by Garret Anderson and a home run by Salmon.

“When you’re not doing it on offense, that puts pressure on a pitching staff,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “When you combine that with a defense that opened the door a little for them, you’re going to be hard-pressed to get it done.”

The A’s pitched well, played smart and served notice that, under new Manager Ken Macha, they are shedding their label as a team that wins by walks, hits and home runs alone. After two sacrifice bunts Thursday, the A’s stole three bases Friday, the first time they have done so in two years.

Erubiel Durazo homered and drove in four runs for the A’s. In the first four games, Oakland’s key off-season acquisition has driven in 10 runs. Last year’s MVP, Miguel Tejada, had three hits, and starter Ted Lilly departed to a standing ovation after holding the Angels to two runs and three hits over 7 1/3 innings.

The Angels trailed, 3-0, after one inning, 4-0 after two and 7-1 after five. Appier’s pitch count was 31 after one inning, 97 after four. Appier, who prefers painting the corners to challenging a hitter right down the middle, indicated that umpire Alfonzo Marquez pinched the edges.

“I didn’t get a lot of help behind home plate,” Appier said.

He didn’t help himself, either, although Scioscia and Appier differed as to why.

Said Scioscia: “His stuff was pretty good. He had trouble getting ahead of hitters and finishing them off.”

Said Appier: “My command wasn’t all that horrible. My stuff was kind of flat.”

Before the game, Bay Area reporters swarmed the Angel clubhouse, fishing for inflammatory remarks from players and coaches who didn’t bite.

Oakland’s Scott Hatteberg said he thought the A’s were the better team last year. The Cubs’ Lenny Harris called the 2002 Angels “a mediocre team” that got the big hits at the right times. Texas’ Alex Rodriguez suggested the Angels might have been “the third-best team in the division.”

Scioscia calmly said the Angels would find no motivation in such remarks.

“Whether other guys think we were the best team in the league, or we were the 30th-best team in the league and caught lightning in a bottle and won the World Series, is not an issue,” he said.