Tigers Give Washburn High Score After Dive

The ball hung in the air off the bat of Nook Logan like a gift from the heavens, so Jarrod Washburn sacrificed his body like a center fielder and went crashing to the infield grass.

The painful, and ultimately fruitless, thud that resulted from Washburn’s belly-flop knocked the wind out of the Angel left-hander. And that was nothing compared with the thumping that Washburn’s earned-run average absorbed during an inning that only deteriorated.

The Detroit Tigers tagged Washburn for six runs in the third inning of a 10-1 victory Sunday at Angel Stadium that could have been very different had Washburn caught Logan’s popped-up bunt -- or noticed that Omar Infante, who had led off the inning with a single, was creeping back toward first base as the ball missed Washburn’s glove by inches.

“Looking back on it, I should have let it drop and threw the guy out at second,” Washburn said. “I didn’t know at the time that he had gone back.”

Right fielder Juan Rivera compounded matters when he let Brandon Inge’s sinking liner glance off his glove for a single, loading the bases before Ivan Rodriguez cleared them with a triple off a high changeup that Washburn described as a “terrible” pitch.

Washburn was gone three batters later after giving up eight hits and seven runs in 2 1/3 innings, ending a spate of strong performances by Angel starters, who had pitched into at least the seventh inning in eight consecutive games. Washburn and Kevin Gregg, who gave up three runs, gave up as many runs in one game as the staff had in its previous 58 innings.

“I let the rest of the starters down,” said Washburn (2-1), whose ERA increased from 2.72 to 4.07. “We had a heck of a good run going, and I didn’t keep it going.”

It was Washburn’s shortest start since he had to leave after two scoreless innings June 20 against the Houston Astros because of spasms in his upper back and neck.

“That’s our first tough start in quite a while,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We’re still going in the right direction, and we’ll pick it back up [today].”

A bigger concern is an offense that is batting .183 in May and did little Sunday against starter Mike Maroth (3-2), except Robb Quinlan’s homer in the sixth.

The Angels managed three hits and four baserunners against Maroth, who pitched eight innings, keeping a sellout crowd of 43,587 quiet for most of the afternoon.

There is no shortage of regulars with paltry batting averages. Shortstop Orlando Cabrera, who received his World Series ring Sunday, is batting .239 after going hitless in three at-bats. Center fielder Steve Finley is batting .187 after going 0 for 2.

“It seems like last year we went through a lot of this too,” said Quinlan, who raised his average to .156 after going one for three. “We’d get hot for a few games and we’d kind of cool off. I think everyone has kind of the same feeling, that we haven’t played our best baseball yet.”

Washburn, 2-0 with a 0.59 ERA in his previous two outings, got off to a shaky start Sunday when Inge hit the second pitch of the game for a homer.

Washburn retired five of the next six batters, but things unraveled during the Tigers’ seven-run third inning, which also featured run-scoring hits by Rondell White and Dmitri Young. Gregg also walked two with the bases loaded.

But the turning point came when Washburn failed to catch Logan’s bunt, which put runners on first and second base with none out.

“If I make that play on that bunt, it probably changes that whole inning and that inning doesn’t happen,” Washburn said. “I didn’t make the play, and things just snowballed from there.”