Sinker Has Byrd’s Stock on the Rise

Paul Byrd was falling behind hitters and allowing too many to reach base, a combination the Angel right-hander said “usually results in a Paul Byrd disaster.”

By the end of his work day, though, Byrd was reflecting on a masterful six-inning performance in which the right-hander shut out the San Diego Padres on five hits and induced two double-play grounders during the Angels’ 9-1 exhibition victory Thursday.

“I got some double plays with my sinker, threw some curveballs for strikes when I was behind in the count, and to be able to do that was big,” Byrd said. “If I walk guys and give up hits, being a fly-ball pitcher, it only takes one home run to do you in.”

Byrd, who in December signed a one-year, $5-million deal to be the Angels’ fifth starter, is trying to be more of a ground-ball pitcher this season, re-introducing to his repertoire the sinker he relied on before elbow problems forced him to abandon the pitch in recent years.

With runners on first and second and one out in the third inning Thursday, Byrd got Geoff Blum to bounce into a 3-6-1 double play. After walking Adam Hyzdu to open the fifth, Byrd got pinch-hitter Damian Jackson to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play.

That helped Byrd, who sat out the 2003 season because of elbow surgery, improve to 2-0 with a 2.25 earned-run average this spring.

“He knows how to pitch and to move the ball around,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He just kept making good pitch after good pitch.”

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The Angels are scouring the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues for a reliever to fill the sixth and final bullpen spot -- they had a scout in Jupiter, Fla., Thursday evaluating Detroit reliever Gary Knotts, though a trade for the right-hander appears unlikely -- but the answer might be in their own camp.

Right-hander Chris Bootcheck, a minor league starter for four years, has emerged as a legitimate relief candidate. A first-round pick in 2000, Bootcheck threw two scoreless, one-hit innings Thursday and has now thrown 10 scoreless innings, all in relief, this spring.

“I see a guy with better stuff -- his slider has more depth, and there’s more life on his fastball,” Scioscia said of Bootcheck. “We’re going to give Chris the best chance to fill an opening in the bullpen. If not, he can start the stretching-out process [of a starter] in the minor leagues.”

With Matt Hensley sidelined by a shoulder tear, the other two leading in-house candidates for the last bullpen spot are left-hander Jake Woods and right-hander Scott Dunn.

“It’s a good competition,” Scioscia said. “We’ll have a better staff because of it.”

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Second baseman Adam Kennedy survived the first major test of his rehabilitation from knee surgery Wednesday when his spikes got caught in the dirt during a double-play drill, his right knee twisted, and

Kennedy, who had surgery Oct. 15, was expected to be sidelined for six to 10 months, but he’s made so much progress he plans to begin a minor league rehabilitation assignment in early April, which would put him on course to return to the Angels in late April.

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Robb Quinlan, who has made three errors at third base this spring, made two solid defensive plays Thursday, ranging to his left to snag Hyzdu’s third-inning grounder and throwing him out and fielding Khalil Greene’s fifth-inning shot to his right on his knees and throwing to first for the out.... Third baseman Dallas McPherson, out since March 3 because of a herniated disk in his lower back, is scheduled to play three innings of defense and hit five to eight times in a minor league game Saturday.... Outfielder Juan Rivera, who has been slowed this spring by a sore shoulder and elbow, was scratched from Thursday’s game because of bronchitis. He was supposed to start in right field.... Reliever Mark Watson was reassigned to minor league camp.