Molinas Insist There’s No Rift

The Molina brothers, Bengie and Jose, were shaken Wednesday by the suggestion that Jose would replace Bengie behind the plate tonight to catch Bartolo Colon and that there are hard feelings between Bengie and Colon after the pitcher repeatedly shook off the catcher’s signals in Saturday’s 5-4 loss at Minnesota.

“I don’t know why people are coming at me like we’re fighting,” Bengie said. “We’re good. It was just one bad inning.

“A lot of times a pitcher’s not going to go with your signs. That’s baseball. We talked about it after the game on Saturday and we were laughing about it. We’re good.”

Colon preferred not to speak to the media on the day before a start. He throws against the New York Yankees in the first of a four-game series.

Jose, who became Colon’s personal catcher, of sorts, during the right-hander’s second-half run last season, said reports of a rift between his brother and Colon were “stupid” in light of Colon’s winning 11 of his first 15 decisions this season with Bengie catching him.

“There’s nothing wrong,” Jose said. “That’s what made me mad -- Bengie is doing a good job with him like I did last year.”

Manager Mike Scioscia said there was a possibility Jose could start tonight.

“We’re going to see how Bengie comes out of tonight’s game,” Scioscia said before the series finale between the Angels and Oakland Athletics. “We’d like to keep his bat in the lineup, could be at DH. If there is a move it would be to keep Bengie fresh.”

Bengie is batting .368 in July after getting four hits in four at-bats Wednesday.

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Right-hander Kelvim Escobar, who had surgery to shave a bone spur in his right (pitching) elbow on June 29, played catch for the first time since the procedure.

“It felt good,” Escobar said. “I threw about 45-50 [tosses].”

Said Scioscia: “They’re baby steps. We won’t get a read on him until much later.”

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Rookie third baseman Dallas McPherson (sore hip) reported no signs of discomfort after taking ground balls and jogging the day before.

“We won’t get into the offensive end of things with him until the end of the week or the weekend,” Scioscia said.

McPherson is eligible to come off the disabled list Saturday but will most likely need a minor league rehabilitation assignment.