Angels overpowered by Twins

The Minnesota Twins provided the Angels with painful reminders of just about every conceivable way to hit a home run Saturday night at the Metrodome.

Jason Bartlett hit one that barely cleared the fence in left-center field in the sixth inning. Torii Hunger drilled one that landed about 15 rows up in left-center in the seventh.

And then, after the Angels had gamely rallied with two runs to tie the score in the eighth, Joe Mauer hit a three-run, inside-the-park homer that barely eluded the reach of center fielder Gary Matthews Jr. in the bottom of the inning.

Mauer’s homer provided the crushing blow in the Twins’ 5-2 victory that served as the final game as an Angel for catcher Jose Molina, who was traded afterward to the New York Yankees for minor league pitcher Jeff Kennard.

Molina, who had been with the Angels since 2001 and helped the organization win its only World Series title a year later, might be leaving at a good time. The Angels have lost five of six games and 13 of 20, though they maintained their one-game lead over Seattle in the American League West after the Mariners lost to Toronto.

The Angels have not hit a homer in 14 games and 132 innings, a stretch in which they are hitting .241 and averaging 3.6 runs. They’ve lost nine of the 14 games during the power outage, second in franchise history to an 18-game drought in 1976.

“Our challenge is really to get back into our game,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said of the team’s struggles. “We’ve been playing terrific baseball minus one road trip early in the season and the last two weeks. That’s the perspective you have to keep.”

Chone Figgins nearly ended the homer drought in unconventional fashion in the eighth off Twins starter Boof Bonser when he hit a run-scoring triple past diving left fielder Jason Kubel to drive in Robb Quinlan. Orlando Cabrera then flared an RBI single to left off reliever Pat Neshek (5-1) to pull the Angels into a 2-2 tie.

But Angels reliever Scot Shields struggled with his command during the Twins’ three-run eighth, an inning that might have gotten even more out of control had Shields not picked Nick Punto off second base.

Punto opened the inning with a single up the middle and went to second when Luis Castillo, attempting to sacrifice, continually pulled back his bat and worked a five-pitch walk.

Shields (2-3) then picked off Punto, who had strayed too far toward third base, before Bartlett hit a hit-and-run single through the left side of the infield to put runners on first and third with one out.

That’s when Mauer hit his drive to deep left center, which Matthews nearly tracked down before banging into the wall.

The outfielder jammed his left wrist on the play but remained in the game and is expected to be OK.

Shields’ psyche might have suffered more extensive damage.

“It hurts a little bit, especially since we’ve been struggling and we come back and tie it up,” said Shields, the normally steady reliever who has wobbled in two of his last three appearances. “We’re feeling pretty good about ourselves and it didn’t take us long for us not to feel good about ourselves because of me.”

Angels starter Jered Weaver might have deserved a better outcome after holding the Twins to a pair of runs in seven innings, yielding Bartlett’s homer on a curveball over the plate and Hunter’s drive on what Weaver described as “a BP fastball down the middle, and he hit it about 469 feet.”

“It’s just one of those years where it’s been some bad luck and things haven’t gone my way,” said Weaver, who is 2-2 over his last seven starts despite compiling a 2.18 earned-run average. “I’m not going to get frustrated. Just go back out there next time and pitch my game and one of these days snap out of it and get a good run going.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com