Angels’ Momentum Halted

No one took the Angels’ 4-0 loss to Baltimore on Sunday night harder than third baseman Shane Halter, who committed two errors that helped the Orioles score two runs and is now in a defensive funk that might rival Derek Jeter’s offensive slump earlier this season.

“We’d probably still be playing right now if I wasn’t on the field,” Halter said after committing his fifth error in his last four starts at third, four of which have cost the Angels runs. “I was probably their best player tonight.”

Well, not quite. Halter’s hyperbole notwithstanding, the best Oriole on the Camden Yards field Sunday was pitcher Sidney Ponson. He threw a five-hit shutout, striking out four and walking one, to improve to 7-0 with a 3.90 earned-run average in 10 games against the Angels, whose bid for a three-game series sweep was denied.

A crowd of 25,448 saw Ponson, a 6-foot-1, 266-pound right-hander who was roughed up for 11 earned runs and 19 hits in his last two starts, stymie an Angel offense that had scored 39 runs in the first five games of a six-game trip and was shut out once in its first 37 games.

Ponson, mixing an overpowering fastball with a sharp-breaking slider, allowed three Angels to reach second base. His last pitch of the game was a 96-mph fastball to strike out Jose Guillen, who went 0 for 12 in the series after hitting .439 with six home runs and 16 runs batted in during his previous nine games.

The Orioles also backed Ponson with three nice defensive plays, one diving and one sliding catch by left fielder Larry Bigbie and a diving catch by center fielder Luis Matos.

“He threw the slider down and away to right-handers and then shoved you inside with fastballs,” Halter said. “He was always ahead of you, and that made it tough.”

The Orioles needed a dominating performance from Ponson to offset Angel right-hander Kelvim Escobar, who gave up three runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings to fall to 2-2.

Escobar, who missed a start in late April because of a split fingernail and whose last start, Tuesday in New York, was cut to three innings because of rain, touched 97 mph with his fastball and mixed in several nice sliders, changeups and split-fingered pitches.

But he doesn’t seem to match up well with Ponson, whose last shutout was a two-hitter against Toronto on June 28, 2001. The pitcher that night for the Blue Jays? Escobar.

“I feel good with myself because I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing as a starter, giving the team quality starts and a chance to win,” Escobar said. “I’m just not getting good results right now. I don’t believe in bad luck. You have to give credit to Ponson. He had it going on tonight.”

The Orioles scored twice in the fifth inning without even hitting the ball hard. Javy Lopez led off with a soft single to right and Jay Gibbons blooped a single to center.

Matos dropped a sacrifice-bunt attempt to the left side, but Halter was slow in charging and his late throw to first hit Matos, allowing Lopez to score for a 1-0 lead.

Matos was credited with a single, and Bigbie walked to load the bases. Jerry Hairston lofted a sacrifice fly to left to make it 2-0, but Escobar escaped further damage by getting Brian Roberts to fly to center and Melvin Mora to pop to second.

Matos lined a double off the left-center-field wall to open the seventh, took third on Bigbie’s grounder to first and scored when Hairston fisted an RBI single to shallow left for a 3-0 lead. Scioscia pulled Escobar for Kevin Gregg, who got Roberts to pop to third and struck out Mora to end the inning.

The Orioles scored their final run in the eighth when, with runners on first and third, Halter couldn’t handle Matos’ hard grounder, his seventh error of the season and fifth in the Angels’ last six games.

“I’ve had a couple of tough plays where I couldn’t pick up the hops, but I also had some easy ones in New York,” Halter said. “You start thinking a little bit, and right now I’m pressing. I’ve got to stay confident, keep playing.”

Angel catcher Bengie Molina couldn’t keep playing after experiencing tightness in his right groin, and he was pulled in favor of his brother, Jose, in the bottom of the third inning. But Manager Mike Scioscia said the injury is not serious, and Bengie Molina should be in the lineup Tuesday night against the Yankees.