Angels see flip side in 9-6 loss

With the speedy David Eckstein bearing down on second base and the powerful Albert Pujols standing in the on-deck circle, Angels shortstop Orlando Cabrera fielded So Taguchi’s fifth-inning grounder Sunday and tried to start a double play.

Instead, he found double trouble.

Eckstein beat Cabrera’s flip to second baseman Howie Kendrick and Taguchi made it to first before Kendrick’s relay throw, bringing Pujols to the plate with two on and nobody out.

Pujols then emptied the bases with his second homer, a shot to left field that transformed a one-run deficit into a two-run lead and propelled St. Louis to an eventual 9-6 victory over the Angels at Busch Stadium.

The usually gracious Cabrera turned testy when approached in the clubhouse afterward, telling reporters during a brief but expletive-filled tirade, “Write whatever you want. Use your imagination.”

Kendrick acknowledged he was somewhat surprised by the flip from Cabrera, who had quickly departed the Angels’ clubhouse Wednesday after misplaying two grounders during a loss to Minnesota.

“When he flipped it to me, I had to wait to see the ball,” Kendrick said. “But no excuses. I should have turned it anyway.... I’m supposed to be ready for anything as a second baseman.”

Cabrera was hardly the only one culpable for the Angels’ first interleague loss after five victories. Angels starter Jered Weaver yielded three runs in three innings before leaving because of tightness in his lower back, and the bullpen gave up six runs, three on a seventh-inning homer by former Angel Scott Spiezio against Hector Carrasco.

Reliever Chris Bootcheck, who gave up Pujols’ game-turning homer in the fifth on a full-count fastball, said his job remained unchanged despite the infielders’ failure to turn the double play.

“Either way you’ve got to bear down and make pitches,” Bootcheck said. “Either way I was going to face [Pujols], and I was going to go right at him either way.”

The Angels, who squandered leads of 3-1 and 4-3, pulled to within 6-5 in the sixth when Shea Hillenbrand walked and took third on a throwing error by third baseman Spiezio before coming home on Erick Aybar’s sacrifice fly.

But Spiezio removed any remaining doubt an inning later with his three-run homer off Carrasco.

Weaver was finished after slipping on a wet mound in the third inning and aggravating a back injury that had plagued him since his last start.

“I felt like I could have thrown through it, but obviously under the circumstances -- wet mound -- they just didn’t want to take any chances,” said Weaver, who surrendered a two-run homer to Pujols in the third. “Obviously you never like to get taken out in the third and put all that pressure on the bullpen.”

Bootcheck inherited a 4-3 lead after Mike Napoli put the Angels ahead with a run-scoring single in the fourth. After retiring the Cardinals in order in the fourth, Bootcheck quickly ran aground in the fifth.

Eckstein led off with a single up the middle and took off for second on the pitch that Taguchi hit to Cabrera, leading to the fateful flip.

“Obviously, you look back and it cost you, but you have to stay aggressive and think about making plays,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “That was a play that an eyelash either way it’s a double play and you’ve got Pujols up there with nobody on, which would have been very important at the time.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com