Colon Is Not Up to Speed Against Resurgent Tigers

Somebody send out a search party. Bartolo Colon’s fastball seems to be missing.

It hasn’t disappeared -- it’s rattling around somewhere in the Angel right-hander’s vast arsenal of pitches -- but it made only a cameo appearance Wednesday night in the Angels’ 10-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers in front of 17,175 in Comerica Park.

Colon, who signed a four-year, $51-million deal last winter to become the Angels’ ace, was rocked for seven runs and seven hits in four innings. The Tigers clinched their first winning April since 1993, ended the Angel winning streak at five and dropped Colon to 3-2.

Given a two-run lead when third baseman Troy Glaus lined a two-run home run to left field -- his seventh -- against left-hander Mike Maroth in the first inning, Colon gave up two runs on Rondell White’s two-run double in the bottom of the first and five runs and four hits in the third.

Even more disconcerting than Colon’s line may have been the manner in which it was cast. Known for a fastball that often hits 98 mph, Colon touched 96 mph only a few times, and his fastball hovered in the 92-mph range for most of his 85-pitch outing.

While Colon’s breaking ball and changeup were sharp -- he struck out six, many on curveballs and off-speed pitches -- Colon had poor command of his fastball and didn’t seem to have much confidence in it.

“After the first few innings, when we were hitting his fastball, he decided to go to something else,” said designated hitter Bobby Higginson, who had a two-run double against Colon in the third. “When you’re a power pitcher and you lose a little confidence in your fastball, you’re not going to be throwing as many strikes as you’d like to.

“He put the hitters in good fastball counts, we got good pitches to hit and were able to do something with them. When he’s on his game, you’re not going to beat him, but today, for whatever reason, he wasn’t at his best.”

Colon also seemed to lose a little zip on his fastball in his last start, when he gave up three runs and five hits in five innings of a 7-5 win over Texas in Anaheim on April 22, an outing in which he threw 100 pitches.

Though Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said Colon has been hurt by a few high-pitch innings -- the veteran threw 25 pitches in the first inning and 31 pitches in the third Wednesday night -- Colon said his arm doesn’t feel tired.

“It seems like I’ve been throwing from the stretch a lot in the last two outings, and that does affect my velocity,” Colon said through an interpreter. “When I really want to put something on my fastball I can, but when I’m working from the stretch, I’m thinking more about movement than velocity.”

Scioscia said Colon was hurt more by a lack of command than velocity.

“Bart had trouble repeating pitches and was up in the zone a lot,” Scioscia said. “Detroit is a hot team, they’re swinging the bats well, and when Bart made a mistake, they didn’t miss....

“If you look at Bart early in the game, he usually works into his velocity. He might have been a tick behind, but I didn’t see his velocity as being way down. When you’re still touching 97, it’s tough to say his velocity is down.”

After Detroit loaded the bases in the third inning on two singles and a walk, Colon lost his grip on a pitch and hit White in the shoulder, forcing in a run. Higginson doubled to left-center field for two runs, Carlos Pena hit a sacrifice fly and Craig Monroe capped the rally with a run-scoring single.

“Every pitch I threw was high, and they made me pay for it,” Colon said. “I wasn’t able to locate my fastball, so I went to the breaking ball because of that.”