Angels’ Loss in 18 Is Twice as Tough

With apologies to Ernie Banks, this was not a good day to play two for the Angels, not when you burn up almost your entire bullpen in a gut-wrenching marathon loss and your rotation is already down one starter entering a weekend series in Yankee Stadium against one of baseball’s most prolific offensive teams.

But that’s what the Angels and Toronto Blue Jays essentially did Thursday night, the teams’ combining superb relief pitching and feeble offense to produce the longest game in Blue Jay history and the third-longest game in Angel history.

The Blue Jays won it in the bottom of the 18th inning when Orlando Hudson ripped a run-scoring single past a five-man infield -- the second time in the game Mike Scioscia employed his nickel infield defense -- for a 2-1 victory, completing Toronto’s three-game sweep and a 4-hour 50-minute game.

The Angels, whose American League West lead over Oakland is now 3 1/2 games, have scored four runs in 50 innings over the last four games and managed only nine hits in 62 at-bats Thursday night, a .145 average.

Chone Figgins and Darin Erstad, the Angels’ first two hitters, each went one for eight. Cleanup batter Garret Anderson was hitless in seven at-bats. The Angels are batting .225 with four home runs and 40 runs in 14 games since the All-Star break.

“This is about as stagnant as I’ve seen us,” Scioscia said. “These guys are going to come around, and if we have to get creative with some lineups, we’ll look at that. But right now, we have six or seven guys in the lineup who are soft. You can see why there’s no production.”

The offense was not Scioscia’s most pressing concern after Thursday night’s game. The Angels got outstanding relief in extra innings, with Brendan Donnelly (two innings), Esteban Yan (three) and Joel Peralta (three) combining to blank the Blue Jays on one hit for eight innings before Scot Shields gave up the winning run in the 18th.

But with closer Francisco Rodriguez having thrown 29 pitches in the ninth -- blowing his third save but escaping a bases-loaded, one-out jam--and Shields having thrown in consecutive games, the Angels will have only one fresh reliever, Kevin Gregg, for tonight.

Scioscia said the team will recall a reliever today, probably Chris Bootcheck or Jake Woods, from triple-A Salt Lake, and it will need another starter this weekend because Jarrod Washburn, scheduled to pitch Saturday, has been scratched because of tendinitis in his left forearm.

“I’ve been battling it for a couple of months, and it flared up after my last start,” Washburn said. “The plan is to miss one turn in the rotation. I want to get on top of this before it ends up ballooning into something major.”

Ervin Santana, who began to warm up in the 15th inning, will start as scheduled tonight, and the Angels could push Sunday starter Paul Byrd to Saturday because the right-hander threw only 63 pitches Tuesday. An emergency starter, possibly Gregg, would be needed for Sunday.

Starting pitching wasn’t a problem Thursday; John Lackey had one of his best games of the season, an eight-inning, four-hit shutout in which the right-hander struck out nine and walked one.

It appeared the Angels would reward Lackey when they pushed across a run in the ninth against junk-ball specialist Dave Bush, who blanked the Angels for eight innings with an 85-mph fastball and 69-mph curve.

Juan Rivera tripled and Toronto loaded the bases with intentional walks to Garret Anderson and pinch-hitter Vladimir Guerrero. Toronto Manager John Gibbons summoned left-hander Scott Schoeneweis to face Steve Finley, who hit an RBI fielder’s choice for a 1-0 lead.

Scioscia then summoned Rodriguez, who had converted 13 straight save opportunities and had given up no runs in his previous 14 2/3 innings.

But the Blue Jays turned a walk and broken-bat hits by Vernon Wells and Shea Hillenbrand into a run to tie the score. Corey Koskie was walked intentionally to load the bases, and Scioscia brought Figgins, his left fielder, into the infield. Rodriguez struck out Aaron Hill on three pitches and Gregg Zaun on a 2-and-2 slider to end the inning.

Alex Rios scored the winning run after hitting a one-out single in the 18th, stealing second and taking third on Shields’ wild pitch.

The Angels brought their infield -- and one-third of their outfield -- in, but second baseman Adam Kennedy couldn’t backhand Hudson’s hard grounder, which rolled into center field to end the game.

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Marathon games

The Angels’ 2-1 loss to Toronto in 18 innings was the longest game of the season and the third-longest game in franchise history. The longest games in Angel history:

*--* Inn. Date Opponent Score 20 April 13, 1982 Seattle 4-3, W 20 July 9, 1971 at Oakland 1-0, L 18 July 28, 2005 at Toronto 2-1, L 17 June 8, 2004 Milwaukee 1-0, L 17 Sept. 21, 1989 at Cle. 5-4, L 17 Sept. 10, 1988 at Texas 3-2, L 17 May 31, 1966 Cleveland 7-5, L

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