Santana slump is a mystery

If there is one good thing about Ervin Santana’s recent struggles, it’s that the Angels right-hander hasn’t been hounded by questions about why he pitches so well at home and so poorly on the road.

The usually mild-mannered 24-year-old grew so weary of that subject this season that he snapped at reporters several times for asking about it.

Of course, now that Santana has been equally ineffective at home and on the road for a month, going 0-4 with an 8.00 earned-run average in his last five starts, several new questions have emerged.

For instance, is Santana hurt? Is his confidence shot? And, most perplexing: How much longer can the Angels keep Santana in the rotation if he continues to struggle?

The answers, in order: No. Probably, though he’d never admit it. Two or three more starts, max.

“I don’t think you’re going to put a date on it and say a guy has one, two, five more starts,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We need production, and we’re looking for Ervin to give it to us. But obviously, with any player, if there are options that come up that will make you a better team, you consider them.”

The Angels have options. The most viable one is triple-A left-hander Joe Saunders, who is 3-0 with a 2.97 ERA in five starts for the Angels this season. Another is right-hander Dustin Moseley, who gave up two runs in 12 innings of two starts to open 2007 before moving to the bullpen.

“I’m not worried,” said Santana, who will start today at Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field, rarely a haven for pitchers. “I just have to get ready to pitch, do my job. My confidence is good. I have to be more focused and forget about the first half.”

That half ended with the worst start of Santana’s career, a three-inning, nine-run, seven-hit effort in a 12-0 loss in Yankee Stadium on July 8 that dropped him to 5-10 and bumped his ERA to 5.97, the highest among 37 American League pitchers who qualify for the ERA title.

Santana has given up an AL-high 23 homers, and opponents are batting .290 against him. His fastball has been clocked around 95 mph, an indication Santana is sound. His changeup, pitching coach Mike Butcher said, has been good. His slider, though, has been an anchor, weighing Santana down.

“Every time he makes a mistake with his breaking ball, he’s getting hit,” Butcher said. “He really hasn’t been beat much with his fastball. It’s the get-me-over slider that has cost him some big hits and runs.”

Santana focused this spring on tightening up his slider, getting it to break later and sharper, but lately his breaking pitch has suffered from an identity crisis.

Am I a slider or am I a curve?

“He gets caught between throwing a slider and a curve,” Butcher said. “He needs to get back to basics -- fastball, slider, changeup, and change speeds on the slider.”

Scioscia also has emphasized “a return to basics, trying to get back to his natural stuff,” the repertoire that made Santana, who went 28-16 with a 4.42 ERA in 2005-06, one of baseball’s most promising young pitchers.

“I think by trying to create some stuff he got away from some stuff that was important to him,” Scioscia said. “One thing is a consistent breaking ball. The other is the great life on his fastball. Maybe he’s trying to manipulate it too much to force some movement that isn’t where his game is right now.

“Some things in his mechanics and delivery have not been clean and consistent, and when you add it all up, you’re seeing a guy who has been too hit and miss.”

Some mental adjustments are needed as well. After two poor home starts, in which he gave up 11 runs and 18 hits in 11 2/3 innings against Houston and Kansas City, Scioscia, Butcher and the team’s catchers held a lengthy meeting with Santana on June 27, urging him to be more aggressive.

Santana struck out 11 in his next start, a loss to Texas in which he gave up four earned runs in 5 1/3 innings on July 3.

After giving up four runs in the first inning against the Yankees on July 8 and receiving some stern words from Scioscia on the mound, Santana retired the next eight batters. But he hit a batter in the fourth, then gave up a single, a three-run homer, a double and a walk. A poor start turned into a disaster.

“It’s not about getting mad, it’s about being aggressive,” Santana said. “If I get angry, I’ll overthrow, and nothing will go the way I want. Aggressive is hitting the corners, staying the same way on every pitch. Everything is there physically. I just have to fix a few little things and get on the same page with the catchers.”

Is everything there mentally? Santana’s body language isn’t exactly screaming, “I’m the man!” His shoulders are often slumped, his face grim. One scout said it appears Santana is waiting for bad things to happen, maybe waiting to get sent down.

“When any player struggles, it’s natural to wonder what it’s going to take to get back,” Scioscia said. “I think inside he knows his talent and trusts his talent. I don’t know if it’s a confidence thing as much as it is just frustration that he knows he is better than he’s pitched, and he just wants to get there.”

Santana has looked over his shoulder often, watching the home runs go by. The Angels don’t want him looking over his shoulder for a replacement.

“You have to keep your focus on your job,” General Manager Bill Stoneman said. “To be thinking about unproductive things isn’t going to help any. As long as you focus on winning, hitting spots, throwing the ball in the strike zone where it needs to be, that’s all you can ask. A guy with his arm, if he’s putting pitches where he wants to, is going to have success.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com