Angels Fail to Defend Their Lead

The marathon is now a sprint, the first 146 games of a 162-game season rendered moot Thursday night when the Angels lost a real clunker of a game to the lowly Detroit Tigers, 8-6, in Angel Stadium to fall into a first-place tie with Oakland in the American League West.

There are 16 games left, including four at Oakland Sept. 26-29, and while the frisky A’s are steaming toward the finish line, the underachieving Angels are staggering toward the tape, their pennant hopes clouded not only by their spotty offense but by injuries to their best hitter and best pitcher.

Right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, the 2004 AL most valuable player who seemed to be priming himself for another late-September surge with home runs in his first two at-bats Thursday, was pulled in the fifth inning after jamming his left shoulder trying to catch Vance Wilson’s double.

And Bartolo Colon, who took the mound with visions of a 20-win season and a possible Cy Young Award, left with more questions about the lower-back injury that has hindered him for three starts.

Guerrero hurt the same shoulder he dislocated during an awkward slide into home against the Dodgers on May 20, an injury that sidelined the slugger for three weeks. Though Manager Mike Scioscia said the injury is “not near” as serious as the previous one, there is always a concern when a power hitter hurts his lead shoulder.

“He’s day to day; we’re not going to play him if there’s a risk of injury and [missing] substantial time,” Scioscia said. “If the lead shoulder is not impacting his swing and he’s not at a risk of injury, he’ll play.”

Colon, who won his last eight decisions, looked out of sorts Thursday, giving up eight runs -- seven earned -- and nine hits in five innings to fall to 19-7, his first loss since July 16.

After going five starts without allowing a home run, Colon gave up three Thursday. Colon was 10-1 after Angel losses, but he was unable to stop a losing streak that reached four Thursday.

Scioscia said Colon’s back “was not an issue.” Colon, through an interpreter, said he “felt a little stiff, but no pain. That had nothing to do with how I pitched today. It was a matter of making bad pitches to an aggressive hitting team.”

Colon didn’t get much support in his quest to become the Angels’ first 20-game winner since Nolan Ryan went 22-16 in 1974, but it wasn’t the offense that let Colon down; it was the defense, in particular, center fielder Chone Figgins, the super utility player who looked more like a futility player Thursday.

After Guerrero’s two-run home run in the first, Tiger designated hitter Chris Shelton, with two out in the third inning and Brandon Inge on first, skied a ball to shallow center.

Figgins looked toward the infield, lost the ball momentarily and seemed to find it as he sprinted in, but he overran the play, the ball dropping behind him for an error allowing Inge to score.

Figgins made an even more egregious mistake with two out and two on in the fourth, when speedy No. 9 hitter Curtis Granderson drove a ball off the wall in center.

Perhaps trying to atone for his third-inning error, Figgins made a risky leaping attempt at the wall, missing the ball by several feet, and the ball caromed away.

By the time Figgins chased down the ball, Granderson had circled the bases for an inside-the-park, three-run home run that gave Detroit a 4-2 lead.

“Our defense has been there all year for us -- this is out of the blue, really,” Scioscia said. “Everything you could have messed up, we messed up out there. We’ve been playing great defense all year. This was very uncharacteristic of us.”

Guerrero, who has reached the 30-homer, 100-RBI plateau in seven of eight seasons, crushed another Mike Maroth pitch in the fourth, sending it deep into the left-field seats for his 31st homer to pull the Angels within 4-3.

But after Magglio Ordonez’s two-out homer and Carlos Pena’s single in the top of the fifth, Guerrero hurt his shoulder on Wilson’s hit, turning the wrong way when the ball left the bat, spinning around and landing awkwardly as the ball hit the ground.

The play was ruled an RBI double, giving the Tigers a 6-3 lead, and Craig Monroe followed with a two-run home run for an 8-3 lead.