Oops, They Did It Again

During the course of the long baseball season, every clubhouse can use a player with a happy-to-be-here attitude. It’s even better if that player can get some hits.

Rookie second baseman Howie Kendrick delivered both Sunday, swinging a dark maple bat and flashing an ivory-colored smile during and after the Angels’ uneven 7-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

He had three hits and drove in two runs, including the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning. The way things went on this afternoon, you got the feeling it won’t be too long before Kendrick’s presence goes from useful to necessary.

And with the Angels suddenly in the thick of a pennant race, don’t worry about the pressure getting to the kid who just turned 23 last Wednesday.

When asked about it, Kendrick grinned. He almost can’t help himself.

“I’m always smiling,” Kendrick said. “Everybody’s like: ‘Why are you always smiling?’ ”

As for the pressure: “You have to go through it at some point,” he said. “What better time?”

Kendrick finds himself on a squad that has won 11 of its last 12 games and has crept above .500 for the first time since April. That initial dip coincided with his last time here, and since then the Angels have spent more time below sea level than “Finding Nemo,” but now they appear to have found their way.

“It’s easier” with the team winning, “everybody’s in a good rhythm, everybody’s upbeat and they kind of welcome you in a little more, just to try to fit in and be a part of this team, it feels good,” Kendrick said.

It’s not all rosy for the Angels. They got here with pitching, and now Jered Weaver and Kelvim Escobar are showing some signs of strain. Darin Erstad could be done and Garret Anderson’s production has dropped like a beach ball from the upper deck.

If other teams maintain their high asking prices for the likes of Alfonso Soriano and Bobby Abreu (and any deal that included Kendrick or John Lackey would be too expensive), the Angels won’t get any reinforcements for their lineup. We all know General Manager Bill Stoneman is reluctant to part with much from his shelf. He probably would have held onto the beads instead of buying Manhattan.

So it might be up to the kids, such as Kendrick and Mike Napoli, to provide the offense whenever Vladimir Guerrero isn’t at the plate, to prop up an offense that’s 11th in the American League in runs.

Manager Mike Scioscia likes Adam Kennedy’s defense at second base and Kendrick is unproven at third base. But it’s Scioscia’s job to make the tough decisions. Actually, a few more games like Sunday’s and the decision gets real easy.

Kendrick was spared a trip back to Salt Lake City after the game when the Angels sent Erick Aybar to triple A to make room on the roster for pitcher Dustin Moseley. Scioscia said that they’ll need Kendrick’s right-handed bat against the left-handed pitchers they expect to see in upcoming games and that Kendrick is showing he belongs in the majors after a shaky start in his first stint in Anaheim in late April and early May.

Kendrick started five games in a row -- two of them out of position at first base -- and went two for 16. After that he had only three more at-bats before being sent down to Salt Lake on May 14.

“I think when he came up he thought he had to hit every pitch and hit it hard, and was expanding his [strike] zone,” Scioscia said. “He’s got a great knack to be able to square up the baseball. He’s going to get some pitches to handle to do that.

“Howie got some big hits for us today, some big two-out hits. I think he’s more comfortable.”

The word “comfortable” came up so much I thought I was in a mattress showroom. Kendrick said he had struggled with the breaking balls pitchers threw at the big league level, but he actually benefited from his return to the minors when pitchers started pitching to him the same way.

“The teams have been throwing me the same stuff that I’m seeing here,” Kendrick said. “I think that’s why I’ve been able to make the adjustment a little more, lay off the breaking ball and try to get something in the zone.”

The Angels are more like the Angels when they’re being aggressive on the base paths, but Sunday they ran past the stop sign at opportunistic and veered toward dangerous. Five baserunners were thrown or tagged out in a four-inning stretch, ending innings and crippling scoring chances.

The one time the Angels exercised caution, it cost Kendrick a potential RBI, when Robb Quinlan held at third on Kendrick’s fifth-inning double to right field.

But Kendrick drove home Quinlan in the next inning with another double, then singled in pinch-runner Aybar in the eighth before scoring himself on a double by Jose Molina.

Kendrick sounds like the last person to worry about stats. Here’s an athlete who actually cares about what others think, even the fans. While Manny Ramirez was blowing off the All-Star game, Kendrick showed up in Pittsburgh for the futures All-Star game Sunday, then flew to Toledo, Ohio, for the triple-A All-Star game Wednesday.

“It gets back to the fans,” Kendrick said. “They vote you in, you get a lot of votes from them, it’s kind of like you owe it to them.”

Two days later, he was back in the bigs, filled with confidence from batting .369 with 13 home runs and 62 RBIs in Salt Lake.

“I just feel a lot better this time,” Kendrick said. “I kind of knew what to expect coming in. The experience the first time was a teacher and I learned a few things from that, and I took them down to the minors with me and worked on those things and I got a lot better. Hopefully I’ll stay that way.”

And he’ll hope he stays in L.A. (of Anaheim).

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