Erstad Waits and Sees About Ankle

Darin Erstad’s balky right ankle didn’t feel any better Sunday than it had a day earlier, when he left a 3-2 victory over the Padres.

The Angels center fielder, bothered by recurring irritation in the ankle, returned from the disabled list last week and was playing despite bone spurs, a bruise and deterioration within the ankle.

He wasn’t ready to call the latest development a setback.

“I’m still processing everything right now,” he said. “I’ll give it today, see how it feels tomorrow, see what kind of progress it makes.”

The Angels will watch closely.

“For him to have to take a step back, it’s significant,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “That’s part of the concern because this guy plays through everything.”

But Scioscia again indicated that the Angels have no plans to put Erstad back on the disabled list.

“I’m confident that Erst is going to be able to stay healthy enough to have a role for us,” he said. “We’re not really sure if it’s going to be that presence in center field every day that we had planned for, but we’ll see how he feels.”

Erstad, who left Saturday’s game in the fourth inning after tweaking his ankle in the first, said that when the ankle flares, “it’s not much fun to be on.”

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A club spokesman said the Angels would address the issue of the exposed concrete strip at the base of the outfield wall near the foul poles.

The strip came into play Saturday when left fielder Dave Roberts of the Padres, tracking a ball hit by Dallas McPherson, suffered a bruised right knee when he crashed into it while sliding toward the foul line. With Roberts on the ground, clutching his knee, McPherson circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run.

X-rays on Roberts’ right knee were negative, the Padres said, and an MRI exam Sunday showed no structural damage. He is expected to be put on the disabled list this week and could be sidelined for a month or more, Padres Manager Bruce Bochy said.

Nobody could explain why the padding on the wall stopped about eight inches short of the field, Angels spokesman Tim Mead said, but he said of the concrete strip that Roberts ran into: “We’re going to look at it and get it corrected.”

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Though Jose Molina has a track record with Bartolo Colon, Scioscia instead put Mike Napoli behind the plate Sunday, the rookie catching Colon for the first time.

“They need to eventually work together,” Scioscia said before the game. “It’s time to take some chains off of some things, and I think Mike is ready for the challenge of catching Bart. That experience has to start sometime.”

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Orlando Cabrera was given the day off in favor of Maicer Izturis.

“Orlando’s been playing very well,” Scioscia said of his regular shortstop, “but I just think mentally it’s going to be good to have him watch a game.”