Angels Can’t Solidify Base

Sometimes even the most solid of foundations can show a crack or two, and such is the case with Bartolo Colon and Vladimir Guerrero, the bricks and mortar on which this successful Angel season has been built.

Colon, the Angels’ All-Star right-hander, couldn’t hold a four-run lead Saturday night, giving up five runs in the fourth inning of a 5-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins in the Metrodome, and he has now been tagged for 12 earned runs and 15 hits in 11 innings of his last two starts.

Guerrero, the Angels’ All-Star right fielder and the driving force behind their June offensive surge, was hitless in four at-bats Saturday and is now two for 28 (.071) in his last seven games, with two runs batted in, the most unproductive stretch of his two seasons in Anaheim.

The name “Guerrero” and the word “slump” rarely appear in the same sentence, and Guerrero isn’t concerned about this rut -- he was robbed twice Saturday, when shortstop Nick Punto dived to stop his third-inning grounder, and when right fielder Jacque Jones leaped at the wall to grab his fifth-inning drive.

But Guerrero has been icing his left wrist after every game since last week, and the nagging injury could prompt Manager Mike Scioscia to give the slugger a day off today.

“It’s nothing major -- I began feeling it before the All-Star break, and it’s from taking too many swings,” Guerrero said through a interpreter. “This has happened often enough in the past that I know when I need to ice. ... I feel as good as I usually do at the plate. The hits just aren’t falling.”

Colon felt strong enough to hit 97 mph on his 111th pitch of the game, but he ran into problems with command and pitch selection. Colon got ahead of many Twins, but when catcher Bengie Molina called for him to put hitters away with breaking pitches and changeups, Colon often shook Molina off, opting for fastballs.

After being worn down by a laborious 39-pitch second inning in which, he said, “every pitch seemed like a game-winning or game-saving pitch,” Colon (11-6) was pounded for five runs and six hits, including No. 8 hitter Michael Ryan’s two-run home run, in the fourth, wiping out a lead the Angels built with three unearned runs against Johan Santana in the first inning and Adam Kennedy’s run-scoring double in the third.

“I’m going to blame myself for this game because when I got ahead, and Bengie tried to force me to throw off-speed pitches, I didn’t,” Colon said through an interpreter. “I should have mixed more off-speed pitches against this dangerous lineup.”

Colon said he and Molina “are on the same page most of the time” when it comes to pitch selection, “but I didn’t feel comfortable with my [secondary] pitches. I thought I could finish them off with fastballs. It was my fault. Not Bengie’s.”

Joe Mauer and Torii Hunter sparked the Twins’ fourth-inning rally with singles, and Jones chopped an artificial-turf double over first baseman Darin Erstad’s head for one run. Justin Morneau’s sacrifice fly pulled Minnesota within 4-2, and Ryan tied it by smashing a 1-and-2 Colon pitch into the upper deck in right, an estimated 433 feet away, for his first homer since Sept. 27, 2003.

Luis Rodriguez tripled and Punto popped to short for the second out, but Bret Boone, after working the count from 0-and-2 to 3-and-2, lined a single to center, his first hit as a Twin, to give Minnesota a 5-4 lead.

Santana (8-5) held the Angels hitless from the fifth through seventh innings, and reliever Juan Rincon added a scoreless eighth. The Angels threatened in the ninth when Molina hit a leadoff single against closer Joe Nathan and was replaced by pinch-runner Jeff DaVanon.

But Scioscia shunned his usual small-ball approach, letting Juan Rivera swing away instead of asking him to bunt or calling on Maicer Izturis to do so. Rivera fell behind, 0-and-2, and bounced into a 5-4-3 double play. Orlando Cabrera singled, but Nathan struck out pinch-hitter Steve Finley for his 26th save.

“The way Juan was swinging the bat, especially against right-handers, we had the opportunity to break the game open with one swing,” Scioscia said. “We were looking to get DaVanon in motion with a hit-and-run, but he couldn’t get a good jump, and we couldn’t get the count to force the action.”