Illness Hampering Kotchman’s Play

Casey Kotchman wouldn’t use it as an excuse for his first-month struggles, but it couldn’t have helped. The first baseman revealed Wednesday he has been playing with mononucleosis, a virus he was diagnosed with in spring training and has been unable to completely shake.

“A lot of days you feel you don’t have any energy,” said Kotchman, who is batting .159 with no home runs and five runs batted in. “But I trained with it all off-season and played with it in spring training. It’s something you have to deal with.”

Kotchman hit .421 with three homers, seven doubles and a team-high 15 RBIs this spring. But the spring is not nearly the grind the regular season is, and the Angels, concerned Kotchman’s illness might be taking too much of a toll, are considering putting him on the disabled list.

“Fatigue is an issue,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of Kotchman, who did not start the last three games. “He’s not quite locked in.”

The symptoms of mononucleosis -- fever, sore throat, headache, swollen glands, fatigue, loss of appetite -- usually dissipate in one to two months but can sometimes linger for six months or more. Rest is the primary cure, but Kotchman hasn’t gotten much of it. “It hasn’t been a factor,” Kotchman said, “other than not having the normal energy level or the extra pep in my step.”

There hasn’t been much pep -- or pop -- in Kotchman’s bat, though, and that, as much as the mononucleosis, could cut into Kotchman’s playing time. Second baseman Howie Kendrick started at first base Wednesday night, and Scioscia intimated that if Kendrick, the organization’s top pure hitting prospect, produces, he could play more. “Right now,” Scioscia said, “if a guy is swinging the bat well he’ll have a good chance of playing every day.”

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Bob Watson, Major League Baseball’s vice president in charge of discipline, is investigating Tuesday’s bench-clearing brawl between the Athletics and Angels and could determine by the end of the week whether to suspend Angel pitcher John Lackey and A’s catcher Jason Kendall, the two main combatants. Kendall charged the mound in the sixth inning after Lackey barked at the hitter for “sticking his elbow guard over the plate,” trying to get hit by a pitch. “The question is, which one is the instigator?” said Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman, who spoke to an MLB official, believed to be Watson, Wednesday. “I don’t think the guy making a verbal comment is. It seems troubling that someone could say something and provoke an on-field brawl.”

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X-rays of Robb Quinlan’s left elbow, hit by a Chad Gaudin pitch in the ninth inning Tuesday, were negative, but the elbow was bruised and swollen enough to sideline Quinlan on Wednesday. Quinlan was suspicious about Gaudin’s intent, considering he was hit by an 0-and-2 pitch in the wake of the brawl.

“He was throwing strikes to everyone, pitching away to everyone, then he came up and in to me,” said Quinlan, who pinch-ran in the ninth inning Wednesday. “I’m not going to say he hit me on purpose, but it didn’t look good on his behalf.”