A Crash Diet Leaves Angels Feeling Empty

The Angels lost the game, the least of their concerns on a bizarre day at the ballpark. Their shortstop left the game because of whiplash and left the clubhouse wearing a sling on his right arm. Their right fielder spent part of the day in the hospital and found out he had kidney stones. Their catcher survived an arguably unsportsmanlike collision, one so jarring that the guy who ran out of his way to run into him separated his shoulder.

The Angels lost the game. The Oakland Athletics lost Jermaine Dye to the disabled list. So neither side was too bubbly Sunday, after the A’s blew a four-run lead, then scored an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 6-5 victory.

The A’s were on their way to a routine victory, leading, 5-1, with five outs to go. But Bengie Molina hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning and Scott Spiezio hit a two-run homer in the ninth, tying the score, 5-5.

In the bottom of the ninth, after Eric Byrnes led off with a double and took third on a sacrifice, the Angels deployed a five-man infield. The plan worked fine, but third baseman Troy Glaus booted Miguel Tejada’s ground ball for an error, with Byrnes holding at third base and Tejada reaching first. Erubiel Durazo then hit a sacrifice fly, an out that should have been the third but instead scored Byrnes with the winning run.

The loss, charged to Scott Schoeneweis, was the first for the Angel bullpen since June 5. The error was yet another in a miserable defensive season for Glaus, who leads American League third basemen with 15. None of his teammates has committed more than five.

The Angels weren’t too worried when Tim Salmon reported to the ballpark Sunday and said he wasn’t feeling well. The stomach flu had hit Glaus on Friday and Molina on Saturday, so the Angels suspected the bug bit Salmon too. But when he said he also had back pain, they sent him to a hospital to check for kidney stones, just in case.

“I woke up with a sore back,” he said. “It just got progressively worse.”

He did indeed have kidney stones. He has an appointment with a urologist today to discuss treatment. He said he had the same ailment once, about 10 years ago, and missed “maybe a day.” The Angels are off today.

The day was a pain in the neck, literally, to shortstop David Eckstein. In the seventh inning, he retreated toward a shallow fly ball, amid swirling winds that left fielder Garret Anderson said made it tricky for either player to call for the ball.

“He read it a little better than I did,” Anderson said. “He was more aggressive going after it.”

Anderson hit the ground and Eckstein made the catch, but he tumbled backward over Anderson and landed hard on his right shoulder. Eckstein said he had no idea how many games, if any, he might sit out.

Dye, the Oakland outfielder, is expected to sit out three to six weeks after suffering a separated right shoulder. He slammed that shoulder into Molina in a home-plate collision in the fourth inning.

Dye tagged up from third base, trying to score on a shallow fly ball to center fielder Darin Erstad. The throw was on time but several feet up the third-base line. Dye, apparently sensing the throw would beat him, tried to take out Molina and dislodge the ball.

Scioscia called the collision “good old-fashioned hardball.” Molina wasn’t quite so charitable, getting up and hollering at Dye.

“Why did he have to do that?” Molina said. “The throw was four feet off the line.”

Molina held on and saved a run, and he will play this week. Dye might not play for another six weeks, during which time he might think about why he leaned to the right to take out Molina instead of sliding straight to the plate.

“If he’d have slid,” said pitcher Jarrod Washburn, who backed up the play, “he’d probably have been safe.”