Angels Play Like Hackers in Loss

It was like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object when the free-swinging Angels, dead last in the American League in walks, squared off against Daniel Cabrera, the big Oriole pitcher who came down with a Steve Blass bug in his first two starts, walking 16 batters in 6 1/3 innings.

Something had to give Monday night. It wasn’t Cabrera.

The 6-foot-7, 258-pound right-hander, mixing a 98-mph fastball with a nasty slider, gave up one unearned run and five hits in seven dominant innings, striking out six and walking just one -- the second-to-last batter he faced -- to lead Baltimore to a 4-2 win over the Angels in Camden Yards.

Oriole shortstop Miguel Tejada smashed a Jeff Weaver slider, which the Angel right-hander described as “garbage pretty much, right over the middle,” for a two-run home run to center field in the first inning, and the Orioles capitalized on another Orlando Cabrera error to score a pair of second-inning runs that proved decisive.

The miscue prolonged an inning that featured Brian Roberts’ two-run double, which Weaver “really thought was a fly ball to left.” The ball bounced just beyond the reach of left fielder Garret Anderson on the warning track in left-center.

The Angels did not leave Charm City feeling charmed -- they headed for Minnesota on Monday having lost three of four in Baltimore, one of the losses coming on a night the Angels hit four home runs, and two of the losses coming in games Bartolo Colon and Weaver pitched well. Errors marred two of the losses.

“We didn’t play very well for a couple of games here,” second baseman Adam Kennedy said.

Orlando Cabrera wouldn’t argue. Many felt the Angel shortstop deserved a Gold Glove last season after committing seven errors in 141 games, but through 13 games in 2006 he already has four errors, the most recent of which helped Baltimore push a 2-0 lead to 4-0 Monday night.

After Javy Lopez’s one-out double in the second, Corey Patterson hit a grounder to Cabrera, who had a play on Lopez at third. But Cabrera bobbled the ball, and both runners were safe.

“I was trying to throw to third base before I got it -- that’s usually what happens when I miss a ball,” Cabrera said. “Last year I made seven errors, and people expect you to do the same every year. It’s a long season, but I have to be more focused and try to slow things down a little more. I rushed that play.”

Patterson stole second, and after Weaver struck out Chris Gomez for the second out, Roberts, the Orioles’ left-handed-hitting leadoff batter, lofted a 1-and-0 pitch toward the gap in left-center.

Anderson, who is playing with a strained arch in his left foot, was playing in and toward the line, trying to cut off a bloop, and he did not appear to get a good jump. As the ball neared the 364-foot mark in left-center, Anderson, after a long run, looked toward the fence just before the ball dropped for a two-run double.

Did Anderson think the ball was gone or was he about to play the carom?

“I don’t remember,” said Anderson, who had three hits, including an RBI single in the eighth. “I was in and over, and he hit it over my head. There was nothing I could do about that.”

Said Angel Manager Mike Scioscia: “I don’t think he thought it was gone. We were pinching the line, and he had to go a long way. He never had a chance to get in the vicinity.”

Weaver (0-2) settled down, limiting the Orioles to two hits from the third through seventh innings, but the damage was already done.

“The Tejada pitch I left over the middle, and he blasted it,” Weaver said. “The Roberts pitch was a couple of inches off the plate. For a little guy like that to hit it that deep, that was unexpected. You make a good pitch, they still make you pay. It wasn’t our night.”