Angels Give Gift of Glove

It would be easy to say that the Baltimore Orioles merely rallied around each other Thursday afternoon to break their eight-game losing streak after their manager Lee Mazzilli was fired in the morning.

It would also be wrong.

Because while the Orioles, under interim Manager Sam Perlozzo, did enough things right to pull out a 4-1 victory at Angel Stadium, the Angels probably did just as many things wrong, if not more, to lose.

Namely, poor situational hitting and freakishly bad fielding in fumbling away a chance for a sweep of the Orioles.

The Angels left 11 runners on base and were a combined one for 13 with runners in scoring position against five Baltimore pitchers to waste a quality start from rookie right-hander Ervin Santana.

So the Angels (62-46) find themselves again clinging to a one-game lead over the Oakland Athletics in the American League West.

Eric Byrnes, a former Athletic, got Baltimore started in the third inning.

With two out and two strikes, Byrnes lofted a popup into no-man’s land behind third base. Angel left fielder Garret Anderson did not give chase; shortstop Orlando Cabrera did, but he lost it and the ball bounced off his side. B.J. Surhoff and Jay Gibbons came home on what was scored a triple for Byrnes.

“The ball was right there in the ... sun,” Cabrera said. “And I was running at the same time. I couldn’t spin or nothing.”

Did Cabrera expect help from Anderson?

“I don’t know,” Cabrera said.

Said Anderson: “I saw it; it went straight up in the air. I thought it was in the infield and it carried out further than it should have, further than I thought it would. I saw ‘O’ running after it and I thought he had a play on it.”

Manager Mike Scioscia said he had a good angle to view the play.

“That’s really a long way for Garret to come for it,” Scioscia said. “Orlando would have been settled under it were it not for the sun.”

Byrnes had an inkling the flare was trouble.

“Playing left field, I knew how bad the sun was out there,” said Byrnes, who has been traded from Oakland to Colorado to Baltimore since July 13.

“Their guy [Santana], he was throwing some great stuff. That was some of the best stuff I’ve seen all year.”

Santana (6-5) gave up four runs, two earned, and four hits in seven innings while striking out seven, walking two and hitting one.

His three-game winning streak virtually ended in the fourth, when Sammy Sosa, one at-bat after striking out on a 96-mph fastball, turned on a 2-and-0 offering and sent it into the bullpen beyond the left-field fence for a two-run home run.

It was Sosa’s 14th homer this season, the 588th of his career.

Still, Santana was not in awe of his Dominican countryman, who ranks fifth on the all-time home run list behind Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), Barry Bonds (703) and Willie Mays (660).

“I can’t be,” Santana said. “I have to just pitch to the batters, no matter who they are. They all have to be the same to me.”

Down, 4-0, the Angels scored in their half of the fourth, when Vladimir Guerrero’s single scored Darin Erstad, who had tripled off the wall in right-center.

Erstad, though, would leave the game in the seventh, a result of his having hurt his right hip while running across the pitcher’s mound to catch a second-inning pop-up. He is listed as day-to-day.

As is slumping center fielder Steve Finley ... sort of.

Scioscia acknowledged he was thinking of giving Finley a day off to regroup. Finley is four for 25 (.160) in his last six games, including 0 for 3 Thursday, making the final out of an inning all three times and stranding four runners.

In the eighth inning, with the bases loaded, two out and Baltimore’s left-handed closer, B.J. Ryan, coming in, Finley was lifted for pinch-hitter Jose Molina, who struck out.

“I wanted to hit there,” Finley said. “Who wouldn’t want to hit there? Mike’s the manager, he makes the decisions.

“I’m playing baseball. I’m not getting it done right now.”

Neither was Mazzilli, who was fired three days after first baseman Rafael Palmeiro was hit with a 10-day suspension for testing positive for steroids. The Orioles (52-56) had lost 16 of 18 and gone 9-28 since June 21, falling from first place in the AL East to fourth, 10 1/2 games back of Boston.