Angels’ Defeat Looks Awfully Familiar

Mickey Hatcher has thrown extra batting practice, studied hours of videotape, dug deep into his bag of motivational tricks to pump up hitters, and done everything short of reading tea leaves to snap the Angels out of their offensive funk.

“I’ll take any suggestions,” the Angels batting instructor said Tuesday. “Yesterday, I even asked the batboy on the bench if he had any advice.”

Like everyone in an Angels uniform, the batboy had no answers.

The Angels showed a little more life Tuesday night, knocking out nine hits, but too few of them in the clutch. Combine that with another defensive mistake -- second baseman Adam Kennedy’s second-inning error -- and it was too much for the Angels to overcome in a 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants in AT&T; Park.

Wasted was another fine effort by a starting pitcher, this one by John Lackey, who gave up three runs -- one earned -- and five hits in seven innings to fall to 4-5.

“We’re a much better club than we’ve shown to this point, and it’s clearly defined what we have to do,” Manager Mike Scioscia said after the Angels’ fifth loss in seven games. “We have to step it up, look in the mirror, and each guy has to commit himself to playing better baseball.”

The Angels (31-40) showed a little spark in the eighth inning Tuesday when Mike Napoli hit a solo home run to center off reliever Steve Kline to cut the Giants’ lead to 3-2.

Kendry Morales singled to center, and Giants third baseman Pedro Feliz dropped pinch-hitter Tim Salmon’s chopper for an error. Kennedy, batting against Tim Worrell, grounded into a fielder’s choice, and pinch-hitter Juan Rivera, with runners at first and third, struck out looking at a 2-and-2 pitch on the inside corner, ending the inning.

Giants closer Armando Benitez retired the side in order in the ninth, striking out Vladimir Guerrero to end the game.

“Every pitch John makes, he feels his back is against the wall,” Scioscia said. “It’s a simple equation; when you’re not able to get early runs, when you don’t score enough, you put pressure on your pitching staff.”

The errors, an American League-leading 57 after Tuesday night -- have placed an added burden on Angels pitchers.

Before this series, Kennedy said it was “flat-out amazing that every mistake has been so costly,” and those words were probably ringing in his ears Tuesday night.

Ray Durham led off the second with a grounder up the middle. Kennedy made a nice back-hand stop but dropped the ball for an error -- the team’s 23rd in 18 games -- as he tried to make the transfer from glove to throwing hand.

“I don’t really know how to explain it,” Kennedy said. “I just didn’t finish the play.”

Lackey picked off Durham, but first baseman Morales’ throw to second tailed high and away, and Durham slid in ahead of shortstop Orlando Cabrera’s tag.

Lackey got Steve Finley to pop to first and Feliz to fly to center. The Angels intentionally walked Eliezer Alfonzo to face pitcher Matt Morris (5-7), a .170 hitter who lined a double to right to score two runs, increasing the Angels’ major league-leading number of unearned runs given up to 53.

“You don’t think about it,” Kennedy said of the team’s defensive woes. “Nothing is going right right now except the pitching. Everything else is a little sloppy.”

Kennedy did provide the first clutch hit of the evening, slicing a two-out, RBI double to left in the sixth to cut the Giants’ lead to 2-1. Salmon was on deck during Kennedy’s at-bat, but Scioscia pulled the pinch-hitter back and let Lackey hit for himself. Lackey popped to second and is now hitless in 14 regular-season at-bats.

“We had to balance the fact that we’re not scoring runs with us needing more than five innings from John,” Scioscia said. “John was throwing well and kept us in the game. I thought we could get something going later.”