Slow Start All but Finished Them

It’s of little consolation to the Angels, who are on the verge of being eliminated from playoff contention, but Wednesday’s victory over Kansas City pushed their victory total to 82, clinching their third consecutive winning season, the first time in club history the Angels have had three winning seasons in a row.

Had the Angels not struggled so much in the first two months, when they combined shoddy defense with pitiful hitting, they could have been in the thick of the division race this week.

The Angels were 17-28, a season-worst 11 games under .500, on May 22. Entering Friday, the Angels were 65-42 since May 22.

“We put ourselves in a hole,” reliever Scot Shields said. “I don’t want to start talking about next year, but I hope we realize we put ourselves in this position by the way we played earlier this year.

“Hopefully this will be a positive in years to come. Everyone knows you’re going to lose games, but we were pretty bad. We’re too good a team to have played that bad. We can’t go through that kind of stretch again.”

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Friday seemed to be a good time to get Tim Salmon’s bat in the lineup, because the A’s started Barry Zito, a left-hander whom Salmon has faced regularly since 2000. But Manager Mike Scioscia started Garret Anderson at designated hitter and Chone Figgins, who entered with a .232 average against left-handers, in center field.

The numbers back up Scioscia. Salmon has a career .116 average in 43 at-bats against Zito. Figgins entered with a .194 average in 36 at-bats against Zito, but he gives the Angels stronger defense in center than Juan Rivera, who usually moves to center when Salmon starts at DH.

Anderson entered with a .323 average in 62 career at-bats against Zito. The other option would have been to start Salmon instead of Rivera, who has played all month with a sore left hand that has prevented him from driving the ball with consistency.

“Sometimes when you try to play through an injury like that it can affect your swing,” Scioscia said of Rivera. “He’s not squaring the ball up like he was, but sometimes it takes one swing to get you going. Now would be a good time for it.”

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The day after brought more good news for the A’s and pitcher Rich Harden, who made his first appearance in 3 1/2 months Thursday, giving up one run and two hits while striking out seven in three innings of a 7-4 victory over Cleveland.

After throwing 55 pitches, Harden, who was sidelined by a sprained elbow ligament, said Friday that “it feels great -- the usual soreness, but not too bad.” The A’s hope to extend Harden to about 75 pitches Tuesday at Seattle and 100 pitches Oct. 1 in Anaheim, putting the right-hander in line to start Game 3 of the division series.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com