Rest Possible for Guerrero

Mike Scioscia has been known to give a struggling player an entire series off, three games to clear his head and ideally return with fresh legs and a fresh perspective.

Though it is hard to imagine the Angels playing three straight games without a healthy Vladimir Guerrero, the manager probably will piggyback Thursday’s off day with a game or two off to give Guerrero “a couple days to get off the treadmill.”

That’s how bad things are going for Guerrero, who has 11 hits in his last 70 at-bats, a .157 skid over 16 games that dropped his average from .332 on June 6 to .290.

Guerrero has one home run and four runs batted in during the stretch and has gone eight games without an RBI. With a chance to tie the score in the eighth inning Sunday, the slugger struck out swinging at a 95-mph Luis Vizcaino fastball.

Guerrero has fallen into the same bad habits -- aggressively swinging at too many pitches out of the strike zone -- that led to his .208 average last July, the worst month of his career. Saturday night, Guerrero swung and missed at a chest-high fastball and a breaking ball in the dirt on consecutive pitches.

“Every hitter is prone to slumps, but this is one of the toughest stretches Vlad has ever gone through,” Scioscia said. “But he’s like a shark at the plate -- he just keeps going and never gives away an at-bat. Right now, there’s a little fly in the ointment. He needs to find a way to get back on track.”

Guerrero tried shaving his goatee in San Francisco. Sunday in Arizona he wore his red socks high, managing one infield single in four at-bats.

“One thing we know,” Scioscia said, “is Vlad is going to hit.”

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White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen has been at the center of a media firestorm in the last week, after he used a slur in reference to a Chicago columnist and was fined and ordered by the commissioner to attend sensitivity training.

Ken Williams, the White Sox’s general manager, said he might have to fire the popular manager if Guillen can’t muzzle his offensive remarks.

“We’re all frank, but Ozzie is more on-the-record frank than anyone I’ve been around,” said Scioscia, who calls Guillen a friend. “He’s going to succeed or fail being himself, and the way his team has responded to him, that frankness speaks for itself.”

Can Guillen’s candor be counterproductive? Guillen has ripped players publicly, probably alienating a few, and he has all but acknowledged that he has ordered pitchers to throw at opponents in retaliation for White Sox players getting hit.

“Ozzie certainly speaks his mind, and at times it will bring consequences, pro and con,” Scioscia said. “Anything you say has a chance to spark a reaction.... For a manager, he’s as open as anybody I’ve been around, but that’s just him. He was like that as a player, and he’s not going to change.”

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Garret Anderson did not start Sunday, but Scioscia said the left fielder did not aggravate the strained arch in his left foot beating out an infield single in the 12th inning of the Angels’ 13-inning victory Saturday night.

“His foot was sore the last time we played an extra-inning game, and it set him back for a while,” Scioscia said. “This is more preventive.”

With Juan Rivera still sore from being hit in the shoulder and chin by a pitch Saturday, Tim Salmon made his third major league start in left field. Anderson appeared as a pinch-hitter in the ninth, flying out to end the game.