Ortiz’s Good Start No Relief to Angels

At some point in the next few days, Mike Scioscia probably will tell Ramon Ortiz he is going from the rotation back to the bullpen. If the Angel manager can justify that move to Ortiz, they ought to hang his picture in the front office, honoring him as salesman of the month.

Making his second start in place of the injured Aaron Sele, Ortiz gave up one run and three weak hits in 5 1/3 innings of the Angels’ 2-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics before a sellout crowd of 43,461 in Angel Stadium on Thursday.

Scioscia left himself open for second-guessing when he pulled Ortiz after 91 pitches with a runner on first, one out in the sixth inning and the Angels leading, 1-0.

Reliever Scot Shields, who came in with a 2.89 earned-run average and had given up one home run in 46 2/3 innings this season, failed to get a sinker down and away to cleanup batter Jermaine Dye, who pounded the mistake over the center-field wall for a two-run homer.

A’s left-hander Mark Mulder (9-2) went on to complete the game, giving up one run and four hits and striking out five to help Oakland salvage a split of the four-game series after losing the first two games.

Shields (5-1) suffered his first loss, and the Angels dropped 2 1/2 games behind first-place Texas in the American League West.

“Ramon pitched a great game, and I blew it for him,” Shields said. “I went straight up to him [to apologize] after the inning. He told me to keep my head up, keep smiling.”

Interesting advice coming from the normally affable Ortiz, who was so upset about being demoted to the bullpen in early May that he asked to be traded. But after he went 1-2 with a 9.28 ERA in his first five starts, the bullpen did wonders for Ortiz’s command and confidence.

The right-hander had a 1.59 ERA in 22 2/3 relief innings, earned a rotation spot when Sele went down because of shoulder fatigue, and in starts against Houston and Oakland, Ortiz gave up one run and six hits in 11 1/3 innings.

But Sele will return Saturday against the Dodgers, and barring an injury to another starter or another setback by Jarrod Washburn, who was pulled from Sunday’s game after two innings because of back spasms, the Angel rotation figures to consist of Bartolo Colon, Kelvim Escobar, John Lackey, Washburn and Sele.

And no Ortiz, though Scioscia did hedge.

“Ramon has certainly pitched well enough to give us options,” Scioscia said. “We’ll look at them and make decisions....We hope Washburn and Sele are sound. There are a lot of different things that can happen, and we might have more options than are apparent right now.”

Asked how he would feel if he were demoted again, Ortiz said, “It’s not my decision. They pay me, I have to do whatever Mike and the coaches say. If I have to go to the bullpen, I’ll go, throw the ball well and help my teammates.”

Ortiz was every bit as good Thursday as he had been Saturday in Houston, where he gave up three hits in six scoreless innings of a 6-4 victory.

All three of the A’s hits off Ortiz were balls that could have been outs. Second baseman Alfredo Amezaga lost Dye’s fourth-inning pop-up in the sun, and the ball dropped near the mound for a single.

Shortstop David Eckstein failed to get a glove on Bobby Crosby’s playable fifth-inning grounder, which rolled to center for a single, and Marco Scutaro bunted for a single in the fifth, a play third baseman Chone Figgins could have made with a better throw.

Ortiz had a one-run cushion on the strength of Garret Anderson’s first-inning sacrifice fly that scored Eckstein, who’d doubled to right and taken third on Vladimir Guerrero’s fly ball.

But Ortiz’s one walk, to Mark McLemore to open the sixth, hurt him. Ortiz retired Mark Kotsay on a fly to right, but Scioscia, believing Ortiz was showing signs of fatigue after a 29-pitch fifth inning, pulled the starter.

“He might have had eight or 10 pitches left in his tank, but his location wasn’t as crisp, and Shields was fresh,” Scioscia said. “I thought that was the best way to go.”

There were no complaints from Dye, who blasted an 0-1 pitch by Shields for his 14th home run of the season and a 2-1 lead.

“I was trying to throw it outside for a ground-ball double play, and it ran middle in, right into his wheelhouse,” Shields said. “He’s a good hitter. You make a mistake with him, he’s going to make you pay.”