DOWN THE LINE

Three Days in ... L.A.

The Los Angeles Angels get to visit Los Angeles for the weekend. A tip for Arte’s guys: Head north on the Golden State Freeway, follow the signs. If you get to Burbank, you’ve gone too far.

The grip-and-rip Angels swing early, swing hard and hit mostly singles, and the chuck-and-duck Dodgers have strategically had the married men in the infield take one step backward in the middle innings, for safety purposes.

As a result, both teams are straining in weak divisions -- not exactly what we had in mind for the third week of May.

Baseball in L.A. (broadly speaking) could rest with the general managers; Bill Stoneman and Ned Colletti are trolling for power bats. First one to Miguel Cabrera wins.

The probables:

Friday: Jeff Weaver vs. Jae Seo

Saturday: Kevin Gregg vs. Brett Tomko

Sunday: Ervin Santana vs. Derek Lowe

Bengie With a ...Jay

Six weeks into their one-plus-one contract with Bengie Molina, the Toronto Blue Jays aren’t entirely pleased with his defense and their pitchers would rather throw to backup Gregg Zaun.

Also, Molina hasn’t hit the way they’d hoped. After distinguishing himself as a clutch hitter with the Angels -- .361 with two out and runners in scoring position in 2005 -- he’s batting .111 in those situations so far.

The Blue Jays would rather not play Zaun every day so could soon be seeking an established, defense-minded catcher.

Baseball ...the Maddon Way

Joe Maddon, spoiled by a premier bullpen while in Anaheim, has shown little tolerance for relievers who pitch behind in the count in Tampa.

So far the Devil Rays manager has replaced seven pitchers in mid-count, only two because of injury.

“Why wait?” Maddon said. “If you believe something bad is going to happen, why stand around and let it happen?”

Of the five strategic changes, three have been on 2-and-0 counts, and only one ended in a walk. Travis Harper, Chad Orvella and Tyler Walker have been on both ends, as the reliever and the relieved.

On May 6 in Oakland, Maddon had Orvella pitch to Marco Scutaro in a bunt situation, because Orvella is a sound defender. When the count went to 1-2, the sacrifice presumably off, Maddon summoned Walker to pitch for the out. Scutaro grounded into a fielder’s choice.

Although pitchers generally find such a strategy humiliating, only Orvella has spoken up.

“I know some of them don’t like it,” Maddon said. “But when things start to go poorly, I’m not going to let it go very poorly.”

The Devil Rays won four of the five games.

Catching Up With ...Troy Tulowitzki

The three-year starter at Long Beach State and seventh overall pick of Colorado in the 2005 draft is batting .315 after a month in the Texas League.

Some scouts say he’ll be better than Bobby Crosby, another Long Beach State shortstop.

“He’s going to be a good bat at shortstop,” one AL scout said. “Might be a Michael Young. Or the Troy Tulowitzki.”

Fisticuffs and ...Shuttlecocks

Jason Kendall attacked John Lackey, got suspended for four games and then called MLB “a badminton league,” badminton being a game that abides by the laws of assault and battery.

A spokeswoman for USA Badminton in Colorado Springs said it was true, badminton frowns on men rolling around on the ground. But she was unaware of the penalty for it.

One More Thing From ... Kevin Millar

To the Boston Herald, on life after the Red Sox: “Holy cow. Doug Mirabelli. Learjet. Police escort. Buck-naked in a cop car. That is what you miss.”