Enough Blame to Go Around as Angels Go Cold

Right on cue, the Angel Stadium fans booed the instant they saw the umpiring crew take the field Friday night. They should have booed the lineup card Manager Mike Scioscia carried when he went out to greet them and Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen.

That card contained the names of all the culprits who are the real reason the Angels trail the Chicago White Sox, two games to one, in this American League championship series.

After their three runs in the first three innings of the series (which was enough to win Game 1), the Angels have scored only three runs in the last 24 innings, including a far-too-little, much-too-late pair in a 5-2 loss in Game 3 on Friday.

Umpire Doug Eddings, the man behind the plate for that historic baseball moment in Game 2 when a caught third strike wasn’t an out, spent the evening along the right field line, only coming into play when a few (clearly) foul balls wandered his way and brought him back into the fans’ focus for another round of boos.

He was harmless, which was a good way to describe the Angel batters.

The hitters at the heart of their lineup are posting batting-average numbers that look like a fast-food value menu.

Garret Anderson: .091

Vladimir Guerrero: .083

Bengie Molina: .100

The weakness that cost them their cushy divisional lead in the middle of the summer -- the lack of one more hitter to decrease the chances of everyone going cold -- has resurfaced at the worst possible time. It wasn’t addressed then, it’s too late to rectify now and it’s the top priority for the off-season, which could come early next week if the Angels can’t find a way to score runs.

The Angels don’t even need to leave the building to find their solution: it’s Paul Konerko, the White Sox slugger who had a home run among his three hits and three RBIs on Friday and will be a free agent this winter.

As for this game, it broke down pretty simply

Angel starter John Lackey, on his rocky first inning that resulted in three Chicago runs: “Just hung a couple breaking balls.”

Second baseman Adam Kennedy, on the masterful performance by Chicago’s Jon Garland: “He didn’t give us many opportunities.”

First baseman Darin Erstad, on getting gunned down at third base on a relay throw after he rounded second on a double to right field to end the second inning: “I made a read and I made the wrong read and I screwed up, plain and simple.”

Most of the Angel struggles have to do with the paucity of hittable pitches being offered by the White Sox.

Two American League pitching staffs had a better earned-run average than the Angels this season. Unfortunately for Scioscia’s crew, the White Sox were one of them.

Only .04 runs per nine innings separated the two staffs during the regular season, but it feels like the gap is growing now, especially with Angel ace Bartolo Colon out with a shoulder injury. With him, I liked the Angels’ chances to go to the World Series. Without him, I don’t.

They sure don’t have a chance to throw back-to-back complete games, as Mark Buehrle and then Garland just did for the White Sox.

Garland faced only one batter over the minimum for the first five innings and finished with a four-hitter.

“He pretty much stayed on the corners and changed speeds,” Anderson said. “Anybody knows if a pitcher can do that, it’s going to be tough to hit.”

That’s where Guerrero is supposed to come in, the guy who can punish pitchers even when they don’t come near the strike zone, the man who can single-handedly ignite the Angels’ offense.

But it might have been telling when Scioscia, responding to a pregame question about Guerrero, mistakenly said, “Bart is a special player.” Maybe that’s because Guerrero, like Colon, hasn’t made an impact on this series.

Hitting coach Mickey Hatcher thought Guerrero was fatigued by the Angels Across America tour that took them to three cities in three games. He said Guerrero had more energy after the Angels took Thursday off, and Hatcher predicted better things for Guerrero.

Apparently he underestimated the lingering effects of jet lag. Guerrero couldn’t even hit a ball past the infield grass in his first three at-bats.

But Guerrero wasn’t alone: 11 straight Angel hitters couldn’t get out of the infield between Erstad’s double in the second and Kennedy’s single in the sixth.

The Angels say it’s not up to one hitter, or even their Nos. 3-4-5 hitters. After all, they just beat the Yankees without an RBI from Guerrero.

They need everyone to produce, starting with leadoff hitter Chone Figgins. They’ve lost their ability to manufacture runs, with their last three runs coming on homers.

These Angels aren’t equipped to win a home run contest, especially against a team that, on the down low, finished fifth in the majors in homers.

“Our guys, they’re battling out there,” Hatcher said. “I think the worst thing that they can do is start thinking that their mechanics are wrong, or something’s wrong with their game.

“They’re just going to go out there and compete.”

Ugh, we don’t need anyone thinking about the word “mechanics” right now, not after having to listen to Eddings’ explanation of his “strike-three mechanic.”

Eddings should be able to fade to the background now. He isn’t the story of this series. It’s outstanding pitching by the White Sox prevailing over the Angels’ hitting.

Even in a week in which “three strikes and you’re out” didn’t hold up, that old baseball basic remains true.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.