Sele Can’t Shoulder Past Orioles

For Aaron Sele, the season thus far: Good start, awful start, good start, awful start.

“I hope to God,” he said, “it’s not up and down all year.”

Who knows? Not the Angels, who are counting on Sele to come back from shoulder surgery and contribute to the defense of their World Series championship.

A day that started with the reminder of October glory ended with the look of a March exhibition game. In the morning, the Angels visited the White House, where President Bush saluted them for their 2002 achievements. In the evening, the Angels suffered their worst loss of the season, a 12-4 clubbing by the Baltimore Orioles that concluded with Eric Owens in left field, Chone Figgins in center, Jeff DaVanon in right, Benji Gil at shortstop and Shawn Wooten catching.

The Orioles’ offensive barrage provided such a cushion that Sidney Ponson could throw a complete game despite making 133 pitches.

Sele’s inconsistency fits in frighteningly well with that of his team, which again slipped below the .500 mark at 24-25.

Sele failed to survive the fourth inning, burying the Angels in a 6-0 hole. Of the 21 batters he faced, 11 reached base. He gave up three home runs. He walked three, one with the bases loaded.

On his only strikeout, he threw a wild pitch for strike three, enabling the batter to reach base anyway.

In four starts, his earned-run average is 9.00. Opponents are hitting .333 off him, with six home runs in 18 innings.

“His stuff is good. His arm speed is good. His velocity is good,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “The flip side is, his command is very poor. Until the two mesh, he’s going to struggle.”

Translation: Too many fat pitches.

“My location is out of whack,” Sele said.

“I’m a groundball pitcher. How many groundballs did I get? One?”

Yes, one.

The $16.5-million question -- the amount the Angels must pay to Sele this season and next -- is how long the inconsistency will dog him. The contract virtually assures him of the chance to take one step forward and two steps back, and there is no guaranteed time when a pitcher returning from surgery will progress to two steps forward and one step back.

“If it was one thing, it would be easy to fix,” Sele said.

“He’s not real comfortable with some parts of his delivery,” Scioscia said.

“You hope that will be worked out. At times, when you’re coming off a major injury, you’re fighting a lot of things.... I don’t think he’s that far away, but there’s definitely a gap he has to narrow on the command side.”

The Angels have a sputtering offense too.

Designated hitter Brad Fullmer, who led the major leagues by hitting .392 in April, is batting .179 this month.

Right fielder Tim Salmon is three for his last 23, and left fielder Garret Anderson is three for 26.

After last season, the Angels thought they had extinguished all talk of curses, hexes and jinxes, but a disturbing new one is developing: The Arte Moreno jinx.

Moreno, the Angels’ new owner, watched the Angels in person as they lost in Anaheim on opening night, as they lost in New York on the day major league owners approved his purchase of the team, as they lost in Anaheim on the day the deal became official and as they lost in Baltimore on Tuesday.

They lost the four games by a combined score of 31-12.

Moreno plans to leave town before tonight’s game, so perhaps the Angels can revert to their championship form.

They could sleep for a night with pleasant memories of the day at the White House, of shaking hands with President Bush, of taking pictures in the Rose Garden and the Oval Office.