Bullpen Fails Angels in Loss

Scot Shields could only crouch in disbelief. The Angels reliever had just failed to field a sharply hit comebacker in the eighth inning Wednesday night at Angel Stadium, the ball nicking off his glove and leading to a four-run outburst that transformed a late tie into a 6-2 victory for the Colorado Rockies.

Garrett Atkins’ smash toward Shields was ruled a hit, but it was clearly a play that the reliever felt he should have made to end the inning.

“He hit it right at me,” Shields said. “I just couldn’t get the glove on it.... It’s tough to handle right now.”

Shields compounded the situation by walking Brad Hawpe and then yielding Jorge Piedra’s bases-clearing double to the warning track in right-center field. By the time Shields’ 42-pitch nightmare of an inning was over, the Rockies were well on their way to their first series victory over the Angels since 1997.

The inning had started innocently enough for the right-hander, who struck out leadoff hitter Jamey Carroll chasing a 94-mph fastball. But Cory Sullivan placed a perfect bunt to the right of Shields for a single, went to second on Todd Helton’s walk and took third on Matt Holliday’s fly ball that Vladimir Guerrero tracked down near the right-field line after a long run for the second out.

Shields (4-5) then got Atkins to hit the ball right back to him, but it caromed off his glove toward the hole at shortstop, allowing Sullivan to score and setting the stage for the big inning.

“It was an ugly inning,” Shields said. “I couldn’t get out of it.”

The late onslaught rendered some clutch hitting by Angels catcher Mike Napoli moot.

After the Angels had gone hitless in their first seven at-bats with runners in scoring position, Napoli tied the score at 2-2 in the seventh inning on a two-out, run-scoring double to left-center field off reliever Ramon Ramirez. Guerrero had doubled to left field with two out, prompting Colorado Manager Clint Hurdle to replace Rockies starter Jeff Francis with Ramirez.

Angels starter Ervin Santana, attempting to improve to 5-0 in June, received a no-decision despite giving up only four hits and two runs in seven innings.

The right-hander, who had struck out four and walked one in three relatively breezy innings, suddenly lost his command in the fourth. Santana walked three of the first four batters he faced, including Hawpe with the bases loaded, to tie the score at 1-1 with nobody out.

But Santana minimized the damage by retiring the next three batters and allowing only one more run to score, on J.D. Closser’s sacrifice fly that gave the Rockies a 2-1 lead.

The Angels threatened in the fourth and fifth innings, putting two on with one out in the fourth and loading the bases with two out in the fifth, but came up empty both times.

“We had some chances to change the complexion of that game early and let Ervin relax a little bit,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We just couldn’t get that big hit. It’s absolutely 180 degrees from what we need and expect.”

Tim Salmon stranded three runners in the fifth when he hit a first-pitch pop-up to shallow left field for the final out.

Tommy Murphy ran the Angels out of another threat in the sixth. After stroking a one-out double, Murphy ventured too far off second base on Adam Kennedy’s comebacker to Francis, who whirled and ran toward Murphy before throwing to shortstop Clint Barmes, who applied the tag before Murphy could return to the base.