Angels Hitters Are Baffled Again, 2-1

A sense of urgency seemed to permeate the Angels’ clubhouse Monday afternoon, at least in the area surrounding Orlando Cabrera’s locker.

“There’s no tomorrow,” the Angels shortstop said. “I think we’re deep enough into the season right now that either we turn it around or we’re not going anywhere.”

Perhaps the rest of the Angels would do well to adopt Cabrera’s outlook, because all this team has done is spin its wheels, a maddening trend that continued with Monday night’s 2-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants in AT&T; Park, a game in which the Angels narrowly avoided the indignity of being no-hit by a 21-year-old.

Chone Figgins lined Matt Cain’s full-count, 96-mph fastball, the Giants right-hander’s 128th pitch of the evening, into center field with two out in the top of the eighth inning for a single, ending Cain’s bid to be the youngest pitcher to throw a no-hitter since Vida Blue, at 21 years 1 month, blanked Minnesota on Sept. 21, 1970.

Cain got Cabrera to pop to second to end the eighth before yielding to closer Armando Benitez, who gave up a two-out single to Mike Napoli, but got Kendry Morales to fly to center to end the game.

The losing pitcher? Who else but Kelvim Escobar, who gave up two runs and four hits in seven innings. Escobar (5-8) has a 3.61 earned-run average in his last seven starts; he is 0-6 in those games.

“It’s a game we’ve seen far too often this year, especially with Kelvim on the mound,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He pitched a strong game for us. Unfortunately, their pitcher was on fire.”

It didn’t hurt Cain that the Angels offense is in a deep freeze.

The Angels have been held to four runs or less and have not reached double figures in hits in nine straight games, batting .199 during that stretch.

Their best hitter, Vladimir Guerrero, is batting .133 in his last 11 games, with one home run and four runs batted in, and has reverted to his over-aggressive ways, swinging at just about every pitch that doesn’t come close to hitting him.

Morales, who sparked an offensive resurgence after being called up in late May, is hitting .111 with no RBIs in nine games, and second baseman Adam Kennedy, who was batting .322 in early May, is hitting .120 with no RBIs in his last nine games.

The No. 5 spot, where Napoli was moved to Monday night, has provided two homers and five RBIs this month.

Combine that with a hard-throwing right-hander with good off-speed stuff, and plate umpire Charlie Reliford’s generous strike zone, and it’s no surprise the Angels were almost no-hit.

“We didn’t have a bad game plan tonight, but he executed real well and made us look bad,” Angels third baseman Dallas McPherson said of Cain, who was pitching so erratically last month that Giants Manager Felipe Alou used an off day to skip his spot in the rotation. “He was effectively wild. He threw just enough strikes to keep us honest. He got stronger as the game went on and basically did what he wanted to.”

Cain admitted he “accidentally started thinking about” the no-hitter in the fourth inning, but that hardly jinxed him. He struck out the side in the seventh and whiffed pinch-hitter Tim Salmon for the second out of the eighth. Four outs away from a no-hitter, Figgins broke it up.

“Of course, you never want to get no-hit, and Figgy came up big, but a loss is a loss,” McPherson said. “When your pitcher gives up four hits and you lose, 2-1, it’s frustrating.”

The Angels didn’t need a hit to score in the first inning, when Figgins walked, stole second and came all the way home when catcher Eliezer Alfonzo’s throw bounced off Figgins and into shallow left-center field.

But Escobar gave the lead right back in the bottom of the first. Randy Winn singled and took third on Mark Sweeney’s one-out, hit-and-run single to center. Barry Bonds slapped a double down the left-field line, tying the score, 1-1. Steve Finley, the former Angels center fielder, grounded to second, scoring Sweeney for a 2-1 lead.

“It’s hard; I’m frustrated,” Escobar said. “I’m throwing so well, but I can’t control the rest.”

* ANGELS BOX SCORE, D4