Trachsel’s Insider Trading Causes Anger

Steve Trachsel jeopardized his chance to shut out the Angels on Sunday when he threw a pitch behind Bengie Molina in the eighth inning, after the Angels’ Scott Schoeneweis had hit Jeromy Burnitz with a pitch earlier in the inning.

Home-plate umpire Rob Drake immediately warned the New York Met pitcher and both teams, but that did not satisfy Angel Manager Mike Scioscia, who raced out of the dugout in protest.

“It looked pretty flagrant when they threw that pitch behind Bengie, and I was a little baffled why the umpire wouldn’t have seen that it was obvious,” Scioscia said. “It looked pretty flagrant to me.”

Molina said he was startled when the pitch whizzed behind his back because Schoeneweis did not mean to hit Burnitz, who had homered twice and driven in three runs.

“I didn’t think they were going to be so dumb,” Molina said. “Because we barely hit Burnitz, one of us is going to get hit for that or thrown at? That’s ... stupid.”

Said Scioscia: “There was absolutely no intent [by] Schoeneweis when he nicked Burnitz. He was trying to run a sinker in there and it got away from him a little bit and the ball was in off the plate about six, eight inches.

“My point [to Drake] was, if he felt that was intentional on Trachsel’s part, that he should have been thrown out of the game.

“And if he thought it was intentional on Schoeneweis’ part, Schoeneweis should have been thrown out of the game.”

Trachsel eventually retired Molina on a groundout and set down the final four Angel batters to record his second career one-hitter in the 8-0 victory.

Trachsel declined to address the matter after the game.

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Scioscia gave Darin Erstad the day off to allow the center fielder to rest his right hamstring for the first time since coming off the disabled list last Monday.

“We’re still looking at a little bit of a spring training for him,” Scioscia said of Erstad, who missed 42 games. “He was out for a long time. Until he gets enough games under his belt to make sure he has some time to recover, we’re going to try to keep him as fresh as we can.”

Jeff DaVanon replaced Erstad in the lineup and went hitless in four at-bats.

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The Angels don’t expect Bobby Jenks to return to double-A Arkansas for at least three more weeks, meaning the pitching prospect will have missed two months by the time he throws his next minor league pitch.

The right-hander, sidelined in May by tendinitis in his pitching elbow, continues to receive treatment at the Angels’ rehabilitation facility in Mesa, Ariz.

ON DECK

Opponent -- Seattle Mariners, four games.

Site -- Safeco Field.

TV -- Channel 9, Monday and Tuesday.

Radio -- KSPN (710), XKAM (950) Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; KWKU (1220) Thursday.

Records -- Angels 34-32, Mariners 45-22.

Record vs. Mariners -- 3-3.

Tonight, 7 -- John Lackey (4-5, 5.76) vs. Joel Pineiro (5-5, 3.89).

Tuesday, 7 p.m. -- Kevin Appier (4-3, 4.65) vs. Ryan Franklin (5-4, 3.18).

Wednesday, 7 p.m. -- Aaron Sele (3-4, 7.22) vs. Freddy Garcia (7-6, 4.69).

Thursday, 1:30 p.m. -- Ramon Ortiz (7-5, 5.09) vs. Jamie Moyer (10-3, 2.99).