Angels Aren’t Hitting It Off

The Angels brought their dead-beat bats to the park again Monday, failing to provide pitcher John Lackey with support in a 3-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians in front of an announced 36,763 in Angel Stadium.

A shake-up at the top of the order did nothing to snap the Angels out of their offensive stupor -- they managed one hit in eight innings off right-hander Kevin Millwood, who retired the last 18 batters he faced after Jose Molina’s third-inning double, and one single off closer Bob Wickman in the ninth.

The Angels have lost three in a row and have scored two runs in the last 29 innings. They’re batting .171 (42 for 246) in eight games in May and have not scored more than five runs in their last 14 games.

Time to panic? No. Time to be concerned? Definitely.

“There are going to be periods of dry spells in the field, on the mound and in the batter’s box, but what’s happening now is just about everyone in our lineup is struggling to some degree,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

“You’re never going to have nine guys swinging the bat well in one game, but if you happen to have one or two guys struggling, you can still get the offense you need. This is one of those rare times when everyone is struggling, and it’s tough to create offense. But we’re too good a team not to bounce out of this.”

Often criticized for being too free-swinging of a club, the Angels didn’t make Millwood work very hard -- he needed only 99 pitches to get through eight innings.

But the Angels, who have four starters batting under .200, also struck out looking six times against Millwood, and several of the called third strikes were right down the middle.

“That’s something that is very, very foreign to this team,” Scioscia said. “Not only that, the couple hitting counts we got into, we didn’t square the ball up like we can, or we couldn’t pull the trigger. A lot of the credit goes to Millwood. He didn’t make many mistakes, and when he had a chance to put hitters away, he made pitches.”

Scioscia doesn’t think the Angels need a big game or an eight-run inning to snap out of their funk.

“We just need to get into our game, get leadoff guys on base and square a ball up with some guys on,” he said. “You have to guard against the guy trying to get out of a two-for-25 slump with a 600-foot home run. Sometimes you start with little victories, and they grow into something big.”

To that end, Scioscia flip-flopped Darin Erstad and Chone Figgins in the lineup, moving Erstad, who is in a four-for-32 slump, to the second spot and Figgins, in a one-for-14 slide, from second to first.

“We’re still confident those guys will set the table, but we thought the switch might open up more things,” Scioscia said. “We could have more opportunity to go from first to third, play more situational ball, which we’re going to need until we get some more guys swinging the bat well.”

The Angels had only one situational opportunity Monday, but after Molina opened the third inning with his double, Adam Kennedy failed to advance him to third and Molina was stranded.

“Mike is trying to get us jump-started, mix it up a bit,” Erstad said. “In the long run, I think this will be beneficial.”

Erstad has bounced around the order throughout his 10-year career and never changes his approach. Figgins has the same mentality toward the leadoff spot. He’s not going to turn into David Eckstein overnight, taking pitches and trying to drive up pitch counts.

“That’s not the way I play -- I’m aggressive,” Figgins said. “You’re not called a leadoff walker, you’re a leadoff hitter. My job hasn’t changed whether I’m hitting first or second, eighth or ninth, it’s to get on base; if there’s a runner in scoring position, try to knock him in.”

What’s slowing the offense is a shortage of runners in scoring position. The Angels rank seventh in the American League with a .261 average with runners in scoring position but are last with 230 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

“On-base percentage is nice, but getting runners in scoring position is what offense is all about,” Scioscia said. “Our hitting with runners in scoring position isn’t off the charts, but it’s OK. We’ve struggled getting guys into scoring position. But that can change in a hurry.”