Erstad Unable to Put Dispute Behind Him

Darin Erstad said he left a phone message Tuesday morning at the home of Johnny Estrada, telling the injured Atlanta catcher he was thinking of him, that he hoped everything would be OK and he was sorry he had been hurt in the previous night’s plate collision between the two.

The Braves sent a message back.

Horacio Ramirez’s first pitch to Erstad sailed behind his back, bringing both teams to the edges of their dugouts and prompting plate umpire Lance Barksdale to issue a warning to the teams.

The 3-2 loss to the Braves in front of an announced 25,276 at Turner Field only made the first-inning pitch all the more frustrating for the Angels.

“He should have been ejected,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of Ramirez. “There was no doubt on the intent.

“I don’t know what [Barksdale] could have been looking at to miss the intent of that pitch.”

The left-handed Ramirez kept a straight face when denying he purposely threw behind Erstad.

“It was a little two-seamer that got away from me,” Ramirez said.

When asked whether he realized who was batting at the time, Ramirez said, “A left-hander?”

Ramirez’s control was impeccable the rest of the night as he limited the Angels to three hits through the first seven innings. He improved his record to 4-4 after pitching eight innings and giving up two runs and five hits, striking out three and walking two.

Starter Paul Byrd (5-5), who played the previous two seasons with the Braves, gave up three runs and nine hits in seven innings.

The right-hander said he was affected by the umpire’s warning.

“When I don’t even take the mound and I’ve already got a warning, yeah, it makes it tough,” Byrd said.

“The first thing I want to do is try to stand somebody up [with an inside pitch]. But if I stand somebody up and I hit them, then I’m ejected and who do we have?.... It’s a fine line. If [Erstad] had gotten hit, I have to stick up for my teammates.”

Somebody had to stick up for the Angels, whose problems against left-handed pitching continued. They were hitting .240 against left-handers before the game.

Help may be on the way, as Vladimir Guerrero took 45 batting practice swings indoors and reported no discomfort in the left shoulder he slightly dislocated May 20.

Guerrero, Scioscia said, will take batting practice on the field today.

His presence could have helped against the Braves, who touched Byrd for single runs in the first, fourth and seventh innings, with Rafael Furcal’s fourth homer this year, on a 0-and-2 pitch by Byrd proving to be the winning run.

The Angels scored on Bengie Molina’s homer to right field -- his fifth -- in the second inning and on Chone Figgins’ eighth-inning double that drove in pinch-hitter Robb Quinlan, who had tripled.

But with Figgins on second base with one out, he was stranded after flyouts by Erstad and Steve Finley.

With the interleague series ending today, and the Angels and Braves not scheduled to meet again soon, the potential is there for things to get interesting.

Erstad’s hit on Estrada sent the catcher to the hospital with a mild concussion, but he is expected to play Sunday after staying home Tuesday.

“They have to realize it’s clean baseball and if they can’t understand that ... “ second baseman Adam Kennedy said. “I don’t know, you’d think they could understand the game a little better than that.”

At the center of it all, with his entire upper left arm bruised and the four-inch gash across it bandaged, Erstad shrugged. He was booed heartily all night.

“I don’t have an opinion on it,” Erstad said of Ramirez’s pitch. “That’s part of the game.

“They were sticking up for their teammates, that’s what people do.”