Escobar finally has an off day

Maybe it was the 99-degree temperature in Angel Stadium, or the distinct lack of electricity produced by an announced crowd of 38,342, many of whom, judging by the large blocks of empty seats, opted not to brave the scorching afternoon sun.

But something Saturday seemed to suck the life out of the Angels, who got a rare dud of a start from Kelvim Escobar and, in the words of Manager Mike Scioscia, had “too many things slip through the cracks on the offensive and defensive end.”

The result was a 7-6 loss to the Texas Rangers that put a crimp in Escobar’s Cy Young Award campaign, as well as his quest to win 20 games, prevented the Angels from boosting their 6 1/2 -game lead over Seattle in the American League West and had Scioscia concerned about his team’s overall play.

“We’ve been playing at a high level for a long time, but we’ve had two days when we haven’t played the way we can,” Scioscia said. “For the most part, we’ve had two games where we didn’t get things done. We were fortunate to come away with a win, but we have to pick it up.”

The Angels won Friday night despite Vladimir Guerrero’s dropped fly ball in right field, which cost them two runs, and some shaky relief work.

They made Saturday’s game interesting in the ninth when Garret Anderson followed Orlando Cabrera’s double and Guerrero’s walk with a three-run home run to right field off left-hander C.J. Wilson, pulling the Angels to within a run and giving Anderson 21 runs batted in over his last 11 games.

But Wilson recovered to retire Maicer Izturis on a pop to second base and Kendry Morales on a fly ball to left for his ninth save, as the Rangers won for the sixth time in seven games.

Escobar, who entered with a four-game win streak, lasted only 2 2/3 innings -- his second-shortest outing of the season -- giving up five runs and six hits, striking out six and walking four. His record fell to 15-7, and his earned run average jumped from 2.77 to 2.99. He fell to 4-9 lifetime against the Rangers.

After facing three batters in the first inning, Escobar was zapped by a 39-pitch second in which he walked three and gave up a two-run double to David Murphy. Singles by Michael Young and Marlon Byrd, Brad Wilkerson’s two-run double and Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s RBI single knocked out Escobar in the third.

“It was one of those days when I couldn’t get the ball down in the strike zone, and when I got ahead, I couldn’t finish them off,” Escobar said. “They had some good at-bats. I wasn’t missing all over the place. They took some good pitches, fouled off some good pitches and got some hits. Give them credit. They got me.”

The Angels couldn’t quite get enough of Edinson Volquez, scoring three runs on seven hits in five innings against the right-hander, who was making his first big league start of the season, but failing to deliver the knockout blow. They left five runners in scoring position against Volquez.

Defensively, the Angels did not commit an error or make any glaring mistakes like they did Friday, but one play seemed to irk Scioscia. Saltalamacchia led off the sixth with a pop to shallow left that dropped between Cabrera, the Angels’ shortstop, and Anderson, the left fielder.

Ian Kinsler followed with an RBI triple that gave Texas a 7-3 lead, but Chris Bootcheck replaced Dustin Moseley and struck out the next three batters.

“I’m not going to get into specifics,” Scioscia said, “but overall, we were flat in some areas.”

Bench coach Ron Roenicke got into specifics.

“For me, that ball should have been caught,” Roenicke said. “It’s up there a long time. I didn’t see who gets the great jump.. . . I don’t think it was a lack of communication, but by the time I saw them [converge], I didn’t think either one would catch it. I don’t know if G.A. broke back. He wasn’t playing that deep. It was so high, I thought someone would catch it.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com