Contrasts Mark Escobar’s Series

Kelvim Escobar stood at his locker, graciously repeating to waves of reporters how he botched a critical fielding play.

As he dressed in an adjacent locker, Scot Shields decided he had heard enough.

“I’ve got an explanation,” Shields said. “He struck everybody out, so when they put the ball in play, he didn’t know what to do.”

That made as much sense as anything in a series in which Escobar was the Angels’ most dominant pitcher and their biggest loser. He struck out four consecutive hitters on Sunday and 10 of the 35 he faced in the American League championship series, but he took two losses in strange fashion.

In Game 2, he was on the mound for the out that wasn’t, the third strike that umpire Doug Eddings ruled was not the third out. In Game 5, in which the Chicago White Sox eliminated the Angels from the playoffs with a 6-3 victory, Escobar was on the mound for another out that wasn’t, the one in which he held the ball in one hand and tagged A.J. Pierzynski with the other hand.

“I know I misplayed it,” Escobar said.

With a 3-2 lead after six innings, the Angels summoned Escobar. If he could stop the White Sox for two innings, and Francisco Rodriguez could handle the ninth, the Angels would play another day.

But Joe Crede led off the seventh with a home run, turning on an inside fastball that Escobar did not consider a mistake.

“I don’t think he had ever hit that pitch that well,” Escobar said. “That’s the way you get him out. He’s the kind of guy that hits breaking balls very well. He takes the inside-out approach.”

With the score tied, 3-3, Escobar struck out five of the next six hitters. With two out in the eighth, he walked Aaron Rowand, but he appeared to be out of the inning when Pierzynski hit a one-hopper off Escobar’s rear end. The ball bounded toward the first base line, and Escobar scampered to retrieve it and tag Pierzynski. The umpires ruled an out, the Angels ran off the field and Escobar hoped no one would realize he had held the ball in his bare hand as he tagged Pierzynski with his glove.

“I know I missed him,” Escobar said. “I was just hoping it would go our way.”

However, the umpires quickly gathered, consulted and reversed the call.

“They got the play right,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said.

Escobar said he should have flipped the ball to first baseman Darin Erstad for the easy out. Instead, with Crede due up again, the Angels yanked Escobar.

Rodriguez gave up the winning single to Crede and two more runs in the ninth, sending the Angels home for the winter.

Escobar will return next spring as a starter, despite running the middle leg of a Shields-Escobar-Rodriguez bullpen relay that strong-armed the Angels through the fall. After a 10-week rehabilitation from elbow surgery, he rejoined the Angels in September, posting a 1.89 earned-run average that month and a 1.59 ERA in the playoffs.

“As important as a bullpen is to a successful team,” pitching coach Bud Black said, “I still think that, over the long haul, starting pitching wins, and Escobar in the rotation is awfully valuable.”