Angels Talk Through the Pain

Enough, Tim Salmon decided. Enough with worrying about the wild card, and the trade rumors, and whether the Seattle Mariners would clinch a playoff spot by the Fourth of July. Salmon gathered the Angel players before Thursday’s game and reminded them there was no sense in worrying about anything but that day’s game.

“He was right,” outfielder Eric Owens said, “and getting a win makes the meeting very positive.”

In the hours after Salmon called the players-only meeting, the Angels responded with a 2-0 victory over the Mariners, ending a four-game losing streak overall and a 24-inning scoreless streak against nemesis Jamie Moyer.

Moyer might start the All-Star game, but Ramon Ortiz was the star Thursday. He got all but four outs of the shutout, with Brendan Donnelly and Troy Percival wrapping up.

The Angels did not exactly crush Moyer. They got four hits, the first a home run by Owens that caromed off the glove of Seattle left fielder Randy Winn and over the fence in the third inning.

“I thought he caught it,” Owens said. “The way my year has been going, I thought it’d be the No. 1 play on top 10 plays of the day on ESPN.”

The way the Angels’ year has been going, their trademark day-to-day focus has been obscured in a haze of questions about how many players might be gone by the trading deadline, or by next spring, and about how many games the team must win against the Mariners this month. Those topics do not inspire confidence.

But times were more harrowing last April, when Manager Mike Scioscia fended off questions about his job security as the Angels dropped 10 1/2 games behind Seattle. They stopped a four-game losing streak here, and the season turned around from there and headed to October. The Angels stopped another four-game losing streak here Thursday, avoided a series sweep and returned to California 12 1/2 games behind Seattle.

“We just ran into a very good team,” Salmon said. “I didn’t want to let the guys get discouraged. We’ve been there before.

“This is very similar to what happened last year, and we got out of it. We can’t get caught up in however many games behind we are. We’ve got to take it one game at a time.”

Ortiz, who lost 5-0 and 8-2 games to Moyer in April, won his fourth consecutive game Thursday. He impressed Scioscia and his teammates by pitching out of a mess in the fourth inning and making an adjustment without a visit from catcher Bengie Molina or pitching coach Bud Black.

The Mariners loaded the bases with none out in the fourth inning, a scenario that often requires someone to calm the excitable Ortiz.

The Angels left him alone this time. He threw three consecutive balls to Mike Cameron, then decided to pitch out of a windup instead of a stretch. He threw two strikes to Cameron, then got him to ground into a force play at home. He struck out Winn and got Jeff Cirillo to fly out, getting out of the inning and starting a stretch in which he retired 14 of 15 batters.

Ortiz got the first two outs of the eighth inning and should have gotten the third, but for a ground ball by Edgar Martinez that cued off first base and caromed into right field.

Donnelly relieved Ortiz and got that third out, striking out John Olerud with the tying runs on base.

The mood was light in the clubhouse, most notably at Molina’s locker. Molina took Wednesday’s 2-0 loss hard, after he grounded into a double play with the bases loaded. The Angels worry that Molina blames himself too often, for too much, and he does not disagree. He did not sleep well Wednesday night.

“I got lucky the windows at the hotel didn’t open,” he said. “That’s how serious I take it.”

Just for this day, he could smile. Just for this day, all the Angels could.