Tejada Auditions Well for Angels

The Angels would like Miguel Tejada to reprise the starring role he played Monday at Edison Field as many times as he’d like in 2004, only while wearing red and white instead of green and yellow.

The Oakland shortstop’s grand slam capped a six-run outburst in the fourth inning as the Athletics built a seven-run lead and then held off the Angels, 7-4, in front of 34,861.

“I hope he comes here,” Ramon Ortiz, who gave up the grand slam on a high fastball, said of Tejada, expected to be a free agent after this season. “Oh, man. He’s a good hitter.”

The Angels brought the potential go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth inning after scoring two runs and loading the bases with two out, but closer Keith Foulke retired Robb Quinlan on a popup to first baseman Scott Hatteberg to record his 43rd save.

The Athletics, a season-best 31 games over .500 after winning their last seven contests, increased their lead over Seattle in the American League West to 4 1/2 games with less than two weeks left in the regular season.

The Angels, 20 games back in the division and mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, have been vanquished to an afterthought one season after winning a World Series.

Ortiz, pitching for the first time since his father died in the Dominican Republic after a long battle with emphysema, had one of his worst outings this season, giving up nine hits and seven runs in 3 2/3 innings.

“Everything’s fine, they just had a lot of good hitters,” said Ortiz (15-12), who declined to say whether the difficult circumstances affected his third bid to earn a career-high 16th victory. “There’s nothing I could do.”

Ortiz’s counterpart, Ted Lilly, turned in another masterful performance against the Angels by giving up only one hit in five innings before leaving because of weakness associated with a cold. The soft-tossing left-hander is 4-0 against the Angels this season but 6-9 against other teams.

Tim Salmon hit a two-run homer against Steve Sparks and a run-scoring single against Chad Harville in the ninth. One out later, Shawn Wooten connected for a run-scoring single against Foulke to make it 7-4 before the Angels’ comeback bid fizzled.

For Angel fans, there was better news off the field.

Even while projecting more than $7 million in losses this season and an even bigger financial hit in 2004, owner Arte Moreno vowed to maintain his pledge to keep ticket prices intact and recoup revenue through alternate sources.

“I don’t believe we’re going to be able to finance our team through [increased] ticket prices,” Moreno said. “If we have seats, we’re going to try to invite people to experience Angel baseball. We will keep it an affordable thing.”

The Angels raised ticket prices by 25% last winter in the wake of their World Series title, but the hike didn’t scare off fans. The Angels have already sold a franchise-record 3 million tickets this season, and Moreno said he hopes to surpass that figure in 2004.

Moreno estimated the Angels would lose between $10 million and $12 million next season, before taking into account money spent on free agents. But Moreno has pledged to be aggressive in a free-agent market that is expected to include Tejada, outfielder Vladimir Guerrero and pitcher Sidney Ponson, among others.