Angels Strand, Can’t Deliver

The flares that fell to the outfield turf so often this month found gloves Tuesday night. The line drives that steamed through the infield went right at defenders. The clutch hits practically dried up.

The Angels’ 6-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Tropicana Field, a frustration fest in which they had 13 hits but were three for 14 with runners in scoring position, was a July aberration for the Angels, whose offense has been churning out big hits by the boatload during their 16-5 month.

But for Chone Figgins, the Angels’ leadoff batter, Tuesday was more the norm. With a runner on second base in the third inning of a scoreless game, the center fielder lined sharply to second to start an inning-ending double play.

With a runner on second base in the ninth inning and the Angels needing another baserunner to bring the potential tying run to the plate, Figgins hit a wicked liner at shortstop Tomas Perez for the second out. Maicer Izturis flied to left field to end the game.

“It was one of those nights, man, but that’s the way it’s been going all year for me,” said Figgins, who is batting .262 with 60 runs, 32 runs batted in and an American League-leading 38 stolen bases.

“I’m becoming a better hitter and having less results. For some reason, every night I feel like I’m squaring balls up and they’re going right at people. You’d think it would turn eventually, and I’d bloop one in.”

Figgins stranded three runners in scoring position Tuesday and is batting .237 with runners in scoring position, but he’s hardly the only Angel who has slipped in the clutch.

The team ranks 12th in the league with a .259 average with runners in scoring position and missed several opportunities Tuesday to provide right-hander Ervin Santana, who blanked the Devil Rays on two hits over the first five innings, with a cushion.

Then, when the Angels broke through in the sixth inning, using Izturis’ double, Orlando Cabrera’s single, Vladimir Guerrero’s run-scoring single and Juan Rivera’s sacrifice fly to take a 2-0 lead, Santana cracked.

Ty Wigginton, who struck out on a Santana slider in the dirt in the fourth, crushed a hanging slider in the sixth for a tying two-run home run.

A bunch of Tampa Bay lightweights then delivered some devastating blows in a four-run seventh. A one-out double by .221-hitting Russell Branyan and a run-scoring double to right-center field by .235-hitting Josh Paul, the former Angels reserve catcher, gave the Devil Rays a 3-2 lead.

The .194-hitting Perez reached on an infield single, and Rocco Baldelli’s run-scoring single knocked out Santana. J.C. Romero retired Carl Crawford on a grounder, but Hector Carrasco gave up a two-run double to Wigginton for a 6-2 lead.

“We left a lot of runners on base early and made Ervin pitch with his back against the wall,” said Manager Mike Scioscia, whose team remained tied for first in the AL West. “The few mistakes he made, they hit.”

Santana (11-4) gave up six runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings, striking out six, but considered Tuesday a step in the right direction after walking eight in Thursday night’s loss at Kansas City.

“The pitch to Wigginton was a hanger, a slider in the middle of the plate, a mistake,” said Santana, whose seven-game winning streak over nine games ended. “The pitch to Paul was a fastball away. I wanted to throw a slider there but didn’t shake off the catcher. That was a mistake. But I’m happy because I got beat with my best stuff. Everything was working how I wanted.”

The same couldn’t be said for Figgins and an offense that had only two bright spots -- three-hit games by Guerrero and rookie Howie Kendrick.

“I was taught to hit the ball on the barrel,” Figgins said. “I’m not going to change my approach, then I’d really be in trouble.”