Devil Rays Knock Wood

The Angels have slipped into another mini-funk, suffering their second consecutive hand-wringing loss when they were pelted by the pesky Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 12-8, in Tropicana Field on Friday night, a game in which the Angels were bombed for nine fourth-inning runs yet still had a chance to win.

Oakland has shaved two games off the Angels’ American League West lead in two nights -- the A’s, tied with the Yankees and Indians for the wild-card lead, are 1 1/2 games back -- and for the suddenly struggling Angels to snap out of this rut, it is clear what they must do: put a gag order on pitcher Jarrod Washburn.

During a lunch with pitcher John Lackey in Baltimore on Tuesday, Washburn mentioned Lackey’s string of 59 innings without giving up a home run, a streak Lackey was unaware of.

Thursday night, Lackey made one mistake in a complete-game effort against the Orioles, giving up a two-run homer to Javy Lopez that snapped Lackey’s homer-less streak and gave Baltimore a 2-0 victory.

Before Friday’s game, Washburn marveled at the consistency of an Angel rotation he called “hands down, the best we’ve had since I’ve been here,” a group that had a major league-leading 3.71 earned-run average and provided quality starts -- six innings or more, three earned runs or less -- in 30 of 39 games since the All-Star break.

“It’s a rarity nowadays for one of us to have a bad start,” Washburn said as he knocked on the wood of his locker. “It’s great for the club to know when they take the field that they have a great chance of winning because of our starting pitching.”

Jinx, and double jinx.

Angel right-hander Ervin Santana, the rookie who was 4-1 with a 2.80 ERA in his previous seven starts, was rocked for seven runs and 10 hits in 3 2/3 innings Friday night, lighting the fuse to a fourth-inning rally that reliever Kevin Gregg couldn’t douse.

The Devil Rays, who at 25-15 have baseball’s third-best record since the All-Star break, pounded Santana and Gregg for nine runs and nine hits in the inning, sending 14 batters to the plate.

Santana walked Jonny Gomes, and Alex Gonzalez (single) and Toby Hall (RBI double) followed with hits. After Joey Gathright popped out and Julio Lugo hit an RBI groundout, Carl Crawford singled sharply to center, with Hall sliding into the plate just ahead of Angel center fielder Chone Figgins’ throw to tie the score, 4-4.

Jorge Cantu, who had a career-high five RBIs, followed with a two-run home run to left, Aubrey Huff doubled to center, and Manager Mike Scioscia pulled Santana (7-6).

“Ervin had a night where the ball was up,” Scioscia said. “He was close to escaping a couple jams but couldn’t make that one pitch to put them away.”

Neither could Gregg, who gave up a two-run homer to Travis Lee, a solo homer to Gomes, a walk, a single to Hall and an RBI single to Gathright before getting Lugo to pop out. When the carnage ended, the Devil Rays had a 10-4 lead.

And back the Angels roared, scoring three runs in the fifth on Juan Rivera’s RBI single, Robb Quinlan’s RBI double and a sacrifice fly by Maicer Izturis, who hit a two-run homer in the fourth.

They scored another run on reliever Trever Miller’s seventh-inning error to pull within 10-8 and had runners on second and third with no out.

But Figgins, with the infield back, struck out swinging, failing to score a runner or advance the runner from second with a grounder to the right side, and Orlando Cabrera popped to second.

Darin Erstad, who struck out on three pitches with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning Thursday night, a loss in which the Angels went one for 10 with runners in scoring position, struck out on three pitches again Friday night, swinging at a breaking ball in the dirt for strike three. Cantu’s two-out, two-run double off reliever Esteban Yan gave Tampa Bay a four-run cushion in the bottom of the seventh.

“We have a lot of confidence in everyone on this team,” Erstad said, “but for whatever reason, we’ve missed some opportunities.”

As hot as the A’s (27-13 since the break), Yankees (25-16) and Indians (25-16) are, the Angels can’t afford to miss too many more opportunities.

“Obviously, we’re going to have to get hot if we’re going to do anything in October,” Erstad said. “But we’ll figure it out.

“We’ll be OK.”