Depleted Angels’ Offense Is Ailing in Loss to Yankees

A plucky Angel team that has forged baseball’s best record despite being ravaged by injuries to four front-line players and a key reliever has hit what Manager Mike Scioscia likes to call “a little bump in the road.”

Or is it one of those concrete pylons?

Behind a strong 7 2/3-inning start by right-hander Jon Lieber, the New York Yankees beat the Angels, 4-2, before a sellout crowd of 43,742 in Angel Stadium on Wednesday night.

Though the Angels lead the American League in runs with a lineup that is missing Garret Anderson, Troy Glaus, Tim Salmon and Darin Erstad, they’ve cobbled together only three runs in their last 34 innings dating to the fifth inning of Saturday’s game in Baltimore. They have also lost two of their last three games.

There was some encouraging news Wednesday in that the Angels finally gained some clarity of the mysterious upper-back, neck and shoulder ailment that has sidelined Anderson since April 22.

After consultations with numerous specialists, the Angel center fielder was diagnosed with early undifferentiated inflammatory arthritis and will begin treatment with oral medication immediately. Anderson will begin light exercises in one week and will progress to more rigorous exercises as his condition allows.

No timetable has been set for Anderson’s return, but Manager Mike Scioscia seemed encouraged: “We know Garret is going to get better, and we expect him to be back helping us this season,” he said. “It’s just a matter of when.”

When the Angels will snap out of their current funk is just as difficult to determine, but one thing seems clear:

With a lineup that includes the likes of Chone Figgins, Jeff DaVanon, Casey Kotchman, Shane Halter and Adam Riggs, the Angels don’t seem to match up with the well-heeled Yankees and their star-studded $183-million payroll.

The Angels have faced three imposing pitchers in three games -- Baltimore’s Sidney Ponson and New York’s Javier Vazquez and Lieber.

“They’ve been able to dominate the strike zone, work both sides of the plate,” shortstop David Eckstein, who had three singles Wednesday night, said of the Yankee starters. “You do that, and you’re going to be successful. Everyone knows good pitching beats good hitting.”

Good pitching dominates marginal hitting. Since his five-hit, six-RBI game Friday night, Figgins has two singles in 18 at-bats. The Angels three-four-five hitters, DaVanon, Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Guillen, combined for one hit in 12 at-bats Wednesday night.

The Yankees didn’t exactly batter Angel starter John Lackey and relievers Kevin Gregg and Ben Weber around either, but the Angels combined to walk 11, including a season-high six by Lackey in 5 1/3 innings, and the Yankees scored the eventual winning run on Gregg’s bases-loaded walk to Derek Jeter in the sixth.

“Eleven walks ... that just came out of the blue,” Scioscia said. “We not only created opportunities for them, we walked in the go-ahead run.”

With the score tied, 2-2, in the sixth, Hideki Matsui singled with one out, and Lackey walked Tony Clark and Miguel Cairo to load the bases. Scioscia pulled Lackey for Gregg, who walked Jeter to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead.

Gregg snuffed out the rally, getting Bernie Williams to pop to third and striking out Alex Rodriguez with a 94-mph fastball, and he escaped a first-and-third, one-out jam in the seventh by striking out Matsui and Clark.

But the Yankees added an insurance run in the eighth when Williams walked with two out and scored on Rodriguez’s double off Weber for a 4-2 lead. Mariano Rivera notched his 15th save with a scoreless ninth.

The Angels scored in the first when Eckstein singled, took second on Figgins’ groundout and came home on Guerrero’s two-out single to left, but Jason Giambi’s two-run home run in the third made it 2-1 Yankees..

The Angels tied it in the fifth but should have scored more. Jose Molina led off with a single and took third on Halter’s single. Adam Kennedy singled to left to make it 2-2 and put runners on first and second with no one out.

Eckstein squared to bunt and took the pitch, but Halter took too big of a lead off second and slipped while trying to scramble back to the bag. Yankee catcher Jorge Posada made a strong throw to second to pick off Halter for the first out.

Eckstein’s hit-and-run single put runners on first and third, but Clark, the Yankee first baseman, turned Figgins’ sharp one-hopper into a 3-6-3 double play.