Back in a Groove

Perhaps the surest sign of John Lackey’s resurgence is the fact that he now has a baseball to remember this season by other than the ones whizzing past him to all corners of the field.

Any time the Angel pitcher needs a reminder of his mammoth potential, all he must do is glance at the ball he collected from his last start, a shutout of the Texas Rangers.

It doesn’t exactly match the hat from Game 7 of the World Series that hangs in Cooperstown as far as mementos go, but it’s the most positive symbol yet for a guy who compiled a 7.76 earned-run average through the first month of the 2003 season.

Since that dreadful start, Lackey has put together a 3.86 ERA, including a 2.48 mark in his last five starts. The right-hander has not given up a run in 19 1/3 consecutive innings heading into a game against the Kansas City Royals tonight at Edison Field, yet he realizes he’s only as good as his next start.

“You can’t dwell on the last one,” he said. “Kansas City’s not going to care much about my last start.”

The Angels (44-42) hope their improvement mirrors Lackey’s as they try to get back into the playoff race after a disappointing first half. The team has won seven of 10 games to move back to within 10 1/2 games of Seattle in the American League West and 5 1/2 games behind Boston in the wild-card standings.

Critics might contend that less than a year after answering the Angels’ prayers by solidifying a shaky starting rotation, Lackey has symbolized his team’s return to mediocrity. He is 6-7 with a 5.01 ERA and is among the league leaders in such undesirable categories as earned runs allowed (59), hits allowed (121) and wild pitches (six).

But the 24-year-old has made gradual -- and undeniable -- progress. He has won two consecutive starts for the first time, and his ERA is the lowest it has been all season. After giving up 12 home runs in his first 10 starts, he has given up four in his last eight. And after failing to record a quality start (six innings or more, three earned runs or fewer) in his first six outings, Lackey has seven in his last 12.

“There’s been baby steps the whole way,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Now it’s starting to show up in the production.”

Lackey has made perhaps his biggest stride when it comes to holding opponents scoreless early in games. After giving up at least one first-inning run in seven of his first eight starts, Lackey has shut down opponents in the first inning in nine of his last 10.

Still, even Lackey concedes that he has not been the same pitcher as last year, when he won nine regular-season games after a midseason call-up and became the first rookie in 93 years to win Game 7 of the World Series.

“This game will humble you in a hurry,” he said. “It’s been one inning that’s kind of been hurting me, it seems like, or one bad situation. Right now I’m just not getting away with mistakes.”

Angel pitching coach Bud Black said Lackey’s struggles are no great mystery. Despite adding slight velocity to a fastball that runs mostly in the low 90s, Lackey has battled command of his pitches and has not been able to overcome teams’ adjustments to his pitching style. Last year, he limited left-handed batters to a .208 average, a statistical anomaly for a right-handed pitcher. This year, left-handers are hitting .295 against him.

“It’s always constant adjustments being made by both hitters and pitchers over the course of a season,” Black said. “I think John has now realized that he’s not new anymore and teams have seen him.

“He knows that he has to change things as far as his pitch patterns. His basic stuff is going to stay the same, it’s a matter of making more consistent quality pitches because the hitters know his velocity, they know his breaking ball.”

Lackey has compounded his woes with an inability to consistently make a key pitch in crucial situations or to overcome teammates’ mistakes.

The Boston Red Sox, for instance, scored three unearned runs against Lackey in an inning in which first baseman Scott Spiezio booted a potential double-play ball. But Lackey exacerbated the damage by hitting the next batter and giving up an 0-and-2 single to the one who followed.

“You have to be able to make pitches often enough to where one bad hop or you miss a location and a guy hits the ball hard doesn’t cause the whole card house to crumble,” Scioscia said. “What’s happening when he’s been struggling is, he’s been behind in the count so much trying to get back into it on such a consistent basis that it seems like it doesn’t give you any margin of error to absorb any bad breaks.”

The Angels have put a priority on maintaining Lackey’s confidence, with veteran pitchers Kevin Appier and Aaron Sele serving as head cheerleaders.

“I think we’ve been able to help him this year mostly with an unfortunate thing, dealing with failure,” Appier said. “Especially with the success he had last year, coming in now and scuffling with more expectations, you don’t want him to start getting super tight, freaking out and panicking.

“You’d be surprised. Regardless of how much success a person has initially, if it’s not too much of a long term, they can question themselves pretty quick. ‘Was that a fluke?’

“The biggest thing is, say in a rough game, you can still point out excellent things he did in that game and say, ‘Now if you can just do that consistently,’ or, ‘Remember how that pitch felt?’

“You address what went wrong, but as far as confidence, you focus on what was right and reaffirm that.”

Lackey said his self-belief has not waned, even during the difficult stretches.

“I’m always confident,” he said. “If you’re not confident when you take the ball, you shouldn’t be here. I think I’m going to win every time I go out. That obviously hasn’t happened, but I know personally I have the stuff and the capability to win every time out.”

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Reversal of Fortune

Though he has pitched well in his last two outings, John Lackey has struggled in many of his 18 starts. A comparison with his 18 starts as a rookie last year:

2003 (18 Starts)

* Record: 6-7 (one complete game).

* Innings pitched: 106 innings.

* Earned runs: 59.

* ERA: 5.01.

2002 (18 starts)

* Record: 9-4 (one complete game).

* Innings pitched: 108 1/3 innings.

* Earned runs: 44.

* ERA: 3.66.