Scioscia Upsets Twins’ Rincon

Minnesota reliever Juan Rincon said Monday that he was stung by comments made by Angel Manager Mike Scioscia when Rincon was suspended 10 days May 2, the day after a three-game series against the Angels, for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

At the time, Scioscia said that the “first round of penalties was woefully feeble, they had no impact and the second ones ... are inadequate,” and added that “when Juan Rincon pitches 11 days from now, are the effects from steroids deteriorated to the point where he’ll pitch at the level of his God-given talents? No. He’ll still have the benefits of whatever steroids he was taking.

“I guarantee you in 11 days Juan Rincon will not become a mere mortal again.”

Asked Monday whether those comments had been on his mind, Rincon said, “Of course, more often than people think.”

As to whether he was more motivated to pitch against the Angels, Rincon said, “Yeah, to prove that I don’t need anything like that to perform.”

Rincon, who gave up one run in one inning Monday, has said he was unaware that an over-the-counter nutritional supplement he was taking contained a banned substance.

Scioscia did not back down from his previous statement.

“I’m not a doctor, but from what I’ve been told, a player who gets a 10-day suspension will still be benefiting from the effects of what he has been taking,” Scioscia said.

“For testing to serve a purpose, you need to give the players a list of drugs that are going to be looked for, testing itself needs to be effectively done over the course of a season and the penalties have to be a deterrent.”

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Adam Kennedy’s hot streak at the plate has included plenty of solid hits. But there has been more than a handful of dinks and flares that allowed him to hit .435 in June, the second-highest average in the major leagues during the month.

A case in point was Monday’s roller up the middle that tipped off the glove of Minnesota shortstop Juan Castro for an infield single that drove in Dallas McPherson to tie the score, 3-3. “I have never had a streak like this, where everything seems to fall,” said Kennedy, who was hitting .347 before Monday. “You’re not going to get any complaints about it from me.”

Kennedy said has not made any radical changes to his swing.

“He just has a good swing going, whether he will tell you that or not,” Angel first baseman Darin Erstad said. “That allows him to do something with tough pitches.”

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Vladimir Guerrero, Garret Anderson and Bartolo Colon have incentive clauses in their contracts that will pay them $100,000 each for being selected to the All-Star game.