Angels Finally Bottom Out

The Angels crashed into last place Tuesday, with a thud.

On a dreadful day, they lost yet again, with abominable clutch hitting from a ragtag lineup in a 5-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox. The injury-depleted Angels officially lost third baseman Troy Glaus for the season, Manager Mike Scioscia called it “doubtful” that center fielder Darin Erstad would return, and pitcher John Lackey stopped just short of pointing fingers at the pitiful offense.

The Angels led the last-place Texas Rangers by 10 1/2 games as recently as July 26. After losing all of that lead in 25 days, the Angels and Rangers are tied for last in the American League West.

“That’s our race,” outfielder Tim Salmon said. “That’s our playoffs.”

The Angels’ collapse of 2003, extending beyond an undistinguished championship defense, now approaches historic proportions.

Since the start of division play in 1969, the Florida Marlins are the lone team to win the World Series one year and finish last the next, and their owner sold off the best players rather than try to repeat.

On this date last year, the Angels were tied for first place. Tonight, they face the Detroit Tigers, the opener of a four-game series between teams a combined 50 games out of first place.

Lackey, the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the World Series and the losing pitcher Tuesday, was backed by a lineup that included a backup catcher hitting .190 and four players who started the season at triple-A.

“We’re down to kind of a skeleton crew out there,” Scioscia said.

While there were highlights -- Chone Figgins had four hits, Adam Riggs homered and Garret Anderson hit the 100-RBI mark for the fourth consecutive season -- the lowlights were glaring.

In the third inning, after Figgins led off with a triple, Jeff DaVanon, Anderson and Salmon struck out in succession. In the sixth, with men on first and third and one out, Riggs and Adam Kennedy struck out. The Angels struck out 14 times, 10 times with men on base.

“We could have won the ballgame,” Lackey said. “I’ll take some of it. I’m not going to take all of it.”

The starters have not forgotten Scioscia’s withering criticism during the first half of the season. Over the past 14 games, the starters have a 3.45 earned-run average, but the offense has failed to score more than four runs nine times.

“As a starting staff, we got hammered pretty good,” Lackey said. “Things have changed a little bit.

“We’re pretty much a totally different ballclub. We’ve got so many guys out, and so many guys coming up. Hopefully, we can come together as a new club.”

Said Salmon: “It’s always frustrating when you lose, but it’s one thing to lose when you’re throwing your lineup out there every night. I firmly believe we’re a much different team if we have everybody healthy. From that standpoint, you try not to get too frustrated about it.”

Although Erstad is not expected to return, he said doctors will evaluate him in two weeks and recommend whether surgery will be necessary to repair his injured right hamstring. He has not played for the last two weeks, undergoing intensive massage therapy in the hope of avoiding surgery.

“I haven’t shut myself down mentally for the season,” he said.

Glaus, diagnosed last week with a partially torn rotator cuff and frayed labrum in his right shoulder, received permission to seek a second opinion from noted orthopedist James Andrews. Lewis Yocum, the Angels’ medical director, and Andrews concurred in the diagnosis and put Glaus on a six-week rehabilitation program. At that time, he will be examined to determine whether surgery will be necessary.