Guillen Matter to Be Handled ‘Privately’

A scheduling quirk that produced a day off in the middle of a three-game series against the Blue Jays worked out well for the Angels, who seemed in need of a cooling-off period after Jose Guillen vented his anger and frustration toward the pitching staff Monday night.

Fuming about a sixth-inning fastball that drilled him in the back -- the sixth time this season he has been hit by a pitch, an American League high -- Guillen lashed out at Angel pitchers for not retaliating by hitting more opposing batters, saying, “I’m giving everything I’ve got ... and I’m not getting any help from nobody.”

Team chemistry has been a staple of the Mike Scioscia era. The Angel manager has prided himself on thwarting clubhouse problems before they fester, and veteran players Darin Erstad and Troy Percival have often helped quash controversy before it became a distraction.

But in Scioscia’s five years in Anaheim, he has never had a player like Guillen, a temperamental slugger who is prone to emotional outbursts and speaks his mind, regardless of who might take offense or what problems it might cause.

Scioscia and General Manager Bill Stoneman have said they have no problem with players expressing opinions, but when those opinions threaten a rift on a team with World Series aspirations, action must be taken.

“We’ll deal with Jose privately, and it will be dealt with the right way,” Stoneman said. “In terms of what we’re going to do, we will handle it internally. We want our pitchers to pitch aggressively, and that means to both sides of the plate, but we’re not in the business of throwing at hitters. That’s not us. That’s not what I or Mike believe in. It’s not how we’re going to operate.”

The Angels, despite all of their injuries, have the best record in baseball, and Scioscia and Stoneman are not about to let any internal discord derail them.

“With any personalities, it’s important the players are all on the same page,” Stoneman said. “We don’t have any two players alike, but we all have to be pulling in the same direction. There’s a way we play baseball, and our manager is the leader. There’s one guy who’s making those calls, and that’s Mike. I just want everyone pulling in that direction.”

*

Catcher Bengie Molina has won two consecutive Gold Glove awards, but if he is to extend his string to three, he can only hope the managers and coaches who vote on the award did not see the video clip of his botched rundown play that allowed the Blue Jays to score the winning run in the 10th inning of a 6-5 victory Monday night.

With runners on first and second and two out, Toronto’s Simon Pond smashed a grounder to the right side that first baseman Casey Kotchman knocked down with a dive.

Chris Gomez, who was on second, ran through a stop sign and appeared to be an easy out when Angel second baseman Adam Kennedy retrieved the ball and fired home. Gomez stopped between third and home and was caught in a rundown.

Molina ran a few steps toward the stationary Gomez and threw too early for third baseman Alfredo Amezaga to apply a tag. Molina, believing he had back-side help, then peeled off toward the infield after his throw instead of remaining in the line to accept a potential return throw from Amezaga.

But Angel reliever Ben Weber had run to first to cover the bag on Pond’s grounder and couldn’t get to the plate in time to join the rundown. Gomez outran Amezaga to the plate and scored with a head-first dive just ahead of the sprinting Weber.

“It was defensible,” Scioscia said, dismissing any thought of its being a fluke play. “One of two things has to happen -- we have to run [Gomez] back more aggressively to have a chance of a toss-and-tag to Amezaga, or [Molina] has to get the ball back quickly to keep the rundown going, so eventually someone would get back to help.

“Bengie is very alert, but he was caught in between on the play. If you’re running at a guy, you have to get him moving, and we didn’t accomplish that.”