Scioscia Upset After Angels Lose to A’s, 4-2

A week ago, it was the Oakland Athletics’ bullpen that was so ragged Manager Ken Macha had to call a team meeting to soothe tension between the starters and relievers, who had exchanged barbs through the media.

Wednesday night, it was the Angel bullpen, touted as one of baseball’s best, that absorbed its second gut-wrenching defeat in as many nights, and Manager Mike Scioscia who tore into his players during a brief but emotional team meeting after a 4-2 loss to the A’s in front of 35,016 in Network Associates Coliseum.

“It wasn’t pleasant,” said Angel reliever Scot Shields, who gave up a two-out, two-run single to Marco Scutaro in the bottom of the eighth inning. “That’s pretty much it.”

Second baseman Adam Kennedy, who provided all of the Angel offense with a two-run home run in the fifth, said Scioscia was “as upset as I’ve ever seen him” during the 15-minute meeting.

“When someone does something like that all the time, different guys take it different ways,” Kennedy said. “When Mike gets that fired up, there’s meaning behind it, because it doesn’t happen all the time.”

What was the gist of Scioscia’s message?

“That we’ve just got to play better,” Kennedy said. “That’s what he told us. We’re capable of playing better, let’s go out and do it.”

It was probably no coincidence that Scioscia’s outburst came moments after a Vladimir Guerrero baserunning gaffe that may have stifled a potential Angel rally in the top of the ninth.

Guerrero, with the Angels trailing by two runs, led off with a bloop single to center, and with second base temporarily unoccupied, he started a dash toward second. But A’s first baseman Scott Hatteberg rushed toward second to cover.

Scutaro, the Oakland second baseman, threw to Hatteberg, and when it appeared the ball might get by Hatteberg, Guerrero moved closer to second. But Hatteberg made a lunging stop, spun around and made a back-door throw to catcher Adam Melhuse covering first to pick off Guerrero.

Garret Anderson then reached first on a strike-three wild pitch, but new A’s closer Octavio Dotel, acquired in a trade from Houston last Thursday, struck out Jose Guillen and Darin Erstad to end the game.

“He just got caught in no-man’s land,” Scioscia said of Guerrero, who may have saved a run by gunning down Mark Kotsay at third base in the third inning.

The Angels have lost five of their last seven to fall a season-high four games behind Texas in the American League West and have lost 16 of 24 games since June 4.

“When we’re playing the way we can, we’re going to be able to absorb a bad break here and there and have a chance to win,” Scioscia said. “Right now, when things aren’t falling into place ... sometimes you’re waiting for a break. We need to pick things up and play with aggressiveness.

“We’ve been a little disjointed, we’re not as crisp with our situational hitting, and we’ve been in a little lull for the past three or four weeks. We need to put some pressure on pitchers.... These guys are too talented not to hit their stride. You can talk about facing good pitchers, but you have to go out and beat good pitchers, and we have the ability to do that.”

They faced another good pitcher Wednesday night in left-hander Barry Zito, who limited the Angels to two runs and four hits in seven innings, but Angel starter John Lackey was up to the task, holding the A’s to two runs and seven hits in six innings.

Shields escaped a first-and-third, two-out jam in the seventh when he struck out cleanup batter Jermaine Dye. But Shields ran into more trouble in the eighth, when Bobby Crosby walked with one out, and Eric Byrnes doubled Crosby to third with two out. Scutaro, the A’s No. 9 hitter, then dumped a two-run single into shallow right field for the game winner.

“I got myself into a jam in the first inning and got away with it,” Shields said. “But you give a team like that too many chances, they’re going to burn you.”

Scutaro didn’t exactly smoke his game-winning hit, but it capped another late-game victory for the A’s, who used a two-run single by Crosby in the seventh inning Tuesday night to beat the Angels, 5-4.

“It seems like we’re just falling short, and the one bad break we’re getting is costing us,” Shields said. “But it shouldn’t come down to that. We’re a good enough team to live through that break, and we’re just not doing that right now.”