Colon is latest to put the Angels at a loss

One is a former 16-game winner, the other a Cy Young Award recipient, and right now Ervin Santana and Bartolo Colon certainly are anchoring the Angels’ rotation -- as in dragging it toward the rest of the pack in the American League West.

A few hours after Santana was demoted to the minor leagues in the wake of his latest disastrous outing, Colon turned in another so-so start Wednesday night at Tropicana Field during the Angels’ 7-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Colon needed 106 pitches to get through five innings in which he gave up five hits and three runs against the team with the worst record in the major leagues.

Today, the Devil Rays, having outscored the Angels, 15-5, over the last two games, will go for their first series sweep at Tropicana Field since June 20-22, 2006, against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Tampa Bay had lost five consecutive series before the Angels came to town.

Although Colon’s numbers over his last nine starts -- 1-5 with a 8.67 earned-run average -- rival those of Santana over his last six starts -- 0-5 with an 8.45 ERA -- the Angels don’t appear to be losing patience with the veteran right-hander the way they did with the 24-year-old Santana, who was optioned to triple-A Salt Lake.

“We’re nowhere near that with Bart,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “I think as long as he’s healthy and he maintains his stuff, he’s going to pitch well in the second half.”

Colon (6-5) struck out seven, walked four and called his outing “something I can build off of.” He minimized the damage during a fourth inning in which the Devil Rays managed only one run despite putting their first four batters on base.

But Tampa Bay scored two runs in the fifth inning to take a 3-1 lead against Colon, who before Wednesday had been 9-1 with a 3.31 ERA against the Devil Rays, including 3-0 with a 2.72 ERA at Tropicana Field.

Things got even more out of whack for the Angels in the sixth inning when Carlos Pena drove in three runs with a towering drive against Darren Oliver that looked fairly routine until it ricocheted off a catwalk at the indoor field and landed well in front of center fielder Gary Matthews Jr.

“I saw it go up, ran back to the spot and I looked up and didn’t see the ball ... and then I picked it up and I saw it just as it hit off the light tower,” Matthews said.

Said Oliver: “That’s a bad deal right there. It’s definitely not acceptable, but what can you do about it?”

The Angels also might be wondering how to address a prolonged power outage; they have gone 11 games without a home run, a span of 105 innings.

“I’m shocked we haven’t hit one in a while,” said Matthews, whose 10 homers are second on the team to Vladimir Guerrero’s 14. “It’s tough. We’ve got a few 40-home run guys on this team, so it’s just unbelievable that we haven’t hit one out.”

Colon said he could relate to Santana’s demotion, having been sent to the minor leagues six times as a rookie with the Cleveland Indians in 1997.

“The message was clear that if I didn’t get it done down there, I wasn’t going to get called up,” Colon said through an interpreter.

Colon seemed optimistic that Santana could quickly rectify his problems.

“This is something he can really use to fire himself up,” Colon said. “This is an opportunity to get the mental side straightened out. I know he has good stuff and he’ll work hard to get back up here.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com