Mathis hopes for better results

Jeff Mathis hopes his major league career and his bag of T-shirts that an airline recently lost follow a similar path -- a wayward start followed by a triumphant return to Anaheim.

Mathis suffered through a dreadful debut early last season when he flubbed the opportunity to become the Angels’ everyday catcher. He hit .103 in 39 at-bats before being demoted to triple A in early May and giving way to Mike Napoli, who claimed the starting job with a flourish.

So when Mathis rejoined the Angels on Tuesday, he knew it was more because of attrition than achievement. Napoli is on the disabled list because of a sprained ankle, nudging the door open again for Mathis.

Mathis, 24, acknowledged placing too much pressure on himself last season and said he would try a different approach, “maybe not be so hard on myself.”

“I’m just trying to do the things I need to do to get up here and stay,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll have a better go of it this time.”

The Angels lost in Mathis’ first start of the season Wednesday, a reminder of the bad times last season when pitchers had a 5.82 earned-run average in the 133 innings he caught at the major league level.

“What bothered me the most was actually was when I was behind the plate, we didn’t win that much,” Mathis said. “I was back there and I felt like we couldn’t pull it out.”

The Angels hope the player who turns up this time is the one they were originally envisioning, just like Mathis hopes his bag filled with shirts purchased for his family eventually finds its way home.

“I bought a lot of stuff for them,” Mathis said. “They should have found it by now.”

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Vladimir Guerrero said he remained undecided whether he would participate in his first All-Star game home run derby since 2000 at Turner Field in Atlanta, where he hit only two homers and was eliminated in the first round.

Guerrero, whose 14 homers put him in a tie for 10th place in the American League before Thursday, received 3,151,387 votes in fan balloting, trailing only New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez (3,890,515) and Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter (3,199,571).

“I appreciate the fans appreciating the work that I do and the work that we do here as a team too,” Guerrero said through an interpreter. “I feel like the responsibility that I’m taking for all the teammates who are not going and I feel the responsibility to represent them well.”

Guerrero, who will be making his eighth appearance as an All-Star, lamented the exclusion of Angels shortstop Orlando Cabrera, saying, “He’s got the numbers to back him up. To me, he’s an All-Star. I told Orlando that.”

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Second baseman Howie Kendrick did not play Thursday against Texas after injuring his left index finger during a swing earlier in the series. “He really hasn’t had full range of motion and it’s tough for him to grip a bat right now, but hopefully he’ll get back this weekend,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. Maicer Izturis replaced Kendrick on Thursday.... Utility man Erick Aybar had successful surgery to remove the hook of the hamate bone in his right hand.... Scioscia said reliever Justin Speier, recovering from an intestinal infection that has sidelined him since the end of April, would not rejoin the Angels until after the All-Star break.

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ben.bolch@latimes.com