Angels Put On Sad Exhibition

If winning is the best promotion in baseball, then how do you explain the 2003 Angels?

A team in the midst of a free fall since the All-Star break continues to draw record crowds, 10 months after winning the World Series and several weeks after falling out of playoff contention.

Saturday’s gathering of 43,087, the 21st sellout of the season, jammed Edison Field as if it were late October -- only the quality of play exhibited by the Angels during a 6-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays more closely resembled early March.

The Angels failed to drive in a runner from third base with one out and third baseman Scott Spiezio made a spectacular play on a sharp grounder only to bounce the throw past first baseman Shawn Wooten, a miscue that led to three runs.

“Things just aren’t going our way this year,” said Angel starter Jarrod Washburn, who needed a season-high 123 pitches just to get through 5 1/3 innings. “Hopefully, we can turn it around pretty soon or we’ll just be playing for the last game of the year.”

The sorry display was exacerbated by the loss of center fielder Darin Erstad, who limped off the field in the seventh inning after breaking a protective knee brace while making a sliding catch.

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said that Erstad was not injured and that the team leader, who already missed 42 games with tendinitis in his right hamstring, should be able to play in today’s series finale. It was the second time in eight days that Erstad broke a brace while attempting to field a fly ball. With designated Brad Fullmer out for the season with a knee injury and third baseman Troy Glaus sidelined indefinitely with a bruised shoulder, the Angels were relieved to learn they had been spared another injury.

The Angels were not spared another offensive breakdown. One night after pounding 15-game winner Roy Halladay, the Angels managed only four hits off Corey Thurman, who has spent most of the season with the triple-A Syracuse SkyChiefs. Thurman, making the second start of his career and first of the season, struck out five and walked two over six innings.

The Angels finally broke through when Adam Kennedy hit a solo homer to left-center in the ninth off reliever Jason Kershner.

The Angels lost for the 13th time in 17 games and fell 13 1/2 games behind the Seattle Mariners in the American League West, matching their largest deficit of the season. They are tied with the Baltimore Orioles for sixth place in the wild-card standings, 10 games behind the Boston Red Sox.

Carlos Delgado opened the scoring in the third inning when he singled to drive in his 107th run this season and Vernon Wells concluded it in the sixth with his 96th RBI on a single up the middle that nearly struck reliever Gary Glover in the head.

A maddening third inning encapsulated the Angels’ season. Erstad robbed Chris Woodward of a possible homer when he made a leaping catch near the wall in center field.

But Spiezio, playing third base because of the injury to Glaus, allowed one run to score and paved the way for two more when he fielded Tom Wilson’s grounder cleanly before bouncing a throw in the dirt past Wooten. Bobby Kielty’s two-run single following the error made it 4-0.

“It’s my job to minimize damage after plays like that,” Washburn said, “and I didn’t do it.”

In the bottom of the inning, the Angels put runners on first and second with two out before Kielty made a basket catch in right field of a sinking liner hit by Tim Salmon.

“We just didn’t get it going offensively,” said Scioscia, whose team has scored two runs or fewer in eight of nine games.