Santana’s road woes targeted

Mike Scioscia maintains that Ervin Santana hasn’t pitched long enough to provide conclusive evidence that the right-hander can’t pitch effectively on the road.

But the Angels manager is concerned enough about Santana’s struggles away from home that he is exploring ways to minimize them.

The latest idea Scioscia and pitching coach Mike Butcher have kicked around: Have Santana extend his pregame warm-ups on the road into the top of the first inning to simulate the timing he would have at home, when he goes immediately from the bullpen to the dugout to the mound.

“We’re going to talk to him about it before his next start,” Scioscia said. “His home record is exceptional, and his road record is not what you’d expect. Is it the mound? His comfort level? Is there too much [down] time before the start of the game? We may have him warm up later and go from the bullpen to the mound.”

It’s worth a try. After winning his first game of 2007 at home, giving up two runs and four hits in seven innings of a 5-3 victory over Texas on April 4, Santana was rocked for six runs and seven hits, including two home runs, in 4 1/3 innings of his first road start, a 7-6 loss to the Cleveland Indians at Milwaukee’s Miller Park on Tuesday night.

Santana is only 24, but he has pitched the equivalent of a full major league season at home and close to a full season on the road, and the results are extreme: He is 20-5 with a 3.07 earned-run average in 32 starts at home and 9-12 with a 6.65 ERA in 26 starts on the road.

“If he was making his pitches and getting hit, I think you’d be more concerned,” Scioscia said. “But [Tuesday] night, he just never got into any kind of groove to be able to pitch deep into that game.”

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After reflecting on his decision to give pinch-runner Erick Aybar the green light in the ninth inning Tuesday night, a move that resulted in Aybar getting thrown out at second base to end a one-run loss for the second time in five games, Scioscia opened Wednesday’s pregame media briefing with a declaration.

“We re-evaluated the running game, and we’re going to be a station-to-station team the rest of the season,” he said.

He was joking, of course. Scioscia took the blame for the play -- “It’s not on Erick; he did what he could do” -- but said he wouldn’t hesitate to give Aybar or any other player the green light again in a similar situation.

In fact, Gary Matthews Jr., stole second with two out in the ninth inning Wednesday night and scored on Orlando Cabrera’s single.

“We’re going to stay aggressive,” Scioscia said. “At times, we’ve run into some outs, and it stings when it’s the last out of the game. But we’ve run late in some games and it has influenced games in our favor.”

And what did Scioscia tell Aybar, a rookie, after the game?

“Stay aggressive.”

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Jered Weaver, slowed this spring by shoulder tightness, took another huge step toward returning to the Angels by throwing seven shutout innings, giving up three hits, striking out seven and walking two, in a 92-pitch rehabilitation start for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga on Wednesday.

Weaver, 11-2 as a rookie last season, is tentatively scheduled to start Monday at Boston, but Scioscia said the right-hander could make another rehab start, probably for triple-A Salt Lake, before being activated.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com