It’s Summer, but Angels Still in Fall

There would be no protest and no excuse. The Angels dropped David Eckstein from the top of their lineup to the bottom Tuesday, and the catalyst of a championship offense was brutally honest in explaining why.

“From the standpoint of helping the team out, I’ve done absolutely nothing up there,” he said.

The Angels’ offensive lethargy finally compelled Manager Mike Scioscia, an enormously patient man reluctant to tinker with his lineup, to install Darin Erstad as the new leadoff hitter and follow him with Troy Glaus in the interest of maximizing run-producing opportunities for cleanup hitter Garret Anderson. The Angels debuted their new lineup in a 6-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Edison Field, and Scioscia was noncommittal about how long he would stick with the new order.

“Sometimes, your lineup gets stale,” Angel hitting coach Mickey Hatcher said. “You’ve got to shake things up a little bit.”

In the ninth inning, with his batting average down to .228, Eckstein was removed for pinch-hitter Jeff DaVanon.

The Angels lost to the first-place Mariners for the fifth time in six games over the last nine days, falling a season-high 13 1/2 games behind. Bret Boone and Mike Cameron homered for Seattle, as Freddy Garcia won his sixth consecutive start.

Bengie Molina doubled twice and homered, and Tim Salmon doubled twice and singled. The Angels rallied for two runs in the seventh and another in the ninth, but the 6-1 hole dug by Aaron Sele was too deep for recovery. Sele lost his third consecutive start -- he has failed to survive the sixth inning in all of them -- and his earned-run average shot to 7.01.

Eckstein, the sparkplug of the relentless offense that captivated America during the Angels’ World Series championship run, is now the weakest link in a weak offense.

The Angels averaged 5.3 runs last season, 6.3 during the playoffs. The average is 4.9 this season, and they began play Tuesday having scored three runs or fewer in nine of their previous 13 games.

Eckstein, who hit .293 with a .363 on-base percentage last season, has a .310 on-base percentage. His batting average and on-base percentage are the lowest among the Angel regulars.

So, for the first time in 237 games -- a span dating to Oct. 6, 2001 -- Eckstein batted somewhere other than first.

“If you ask me what our best lineup is, if all the pieces are working, it’s Eckstein and Erstad 1-2,” Scioscia said. “Right now, a couple of pieces aren’t working the way we would like them to.”

Eckstein still precedes Erstad, but now from the bottom of the order. The two hitters most likely to walk, Glaus and Tim Salmon, now bat ahead of Anderson, who leads the team in doubles, home runs and runs batted in.

Erstad led off during his career year in 2000, when he hit .355 and drove in 100 runs. He has not hit .300 in any of his other five full seasons, but he said he considered it “coincidence” that his best season came as a leadoff hitter.

Eckstein has one hit in his last 28 at-bats, and he is hitting .103 since missing six starts after his left hand was hit and badly bruised by a line drive. There is no lingering discomfort affecting his swing, Eckstein said, but there is a loss of rhythm.

“That’s why I like to play every day,” he said. “The game is meant to be played every day.”

No player internalizes his failures as intensely as Eckstein, and Hatcher said the Angels hope to relieve some of that self-inflicted burden by relieving him of his leadoff duties. As he rebuilds his confidence, Hatcher said, he can return to the top of the lineup.

“We want to get him out of that pressure situation,” Hatcher said. “It’s hard on him. You pick up a paper, and it’s his picture. You see the frustration in his face. I know the guy is not sleeping. He’s putting a lot of pressure on himself.”