Colon isn’t the fall guy

CHICAGO -- Bartolo Colon was not the problem Friday night. He wasn’t the solution, either, but to pin a 5-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox on a so-so linescore by the Angels right-hander -- 4 2/3 innings, eight hits, five runs, three earned, two walks, four strikeouts -- wouldn’t be fair.

Colon, making his first big league start since July 23, did walk Paul Konerko in the third inning after jumping ahead of the slugger with two strikes, and he followed that by giving up a two-run, broken-bat bloop single to Jermaine Dye.

But there were far greater Angels transgressions in U.S. Cellular Field, two coming after Dye’s hit, errors by third baseman Maicer Izturis and first baseman Casey Kotchman on the same play that enabled the White Sox to tack on two unearned runs in a four-run rally.

The Angels never recovered, and the team that a few days ago seemed ready to steamroll its way to the American League West title has hit what Manager Mike Scioscia likes to call “a little bump in the road.”

The Angels have lost two straight, and Seattle wins Thursday and Friday trimmed the Angels’ division lead to 7½ games with 15 games to play. The Angels’ magic number to clinch the division remained at nine for the third consecutive day.

“We’re going to turn the page, and bring the same intensity and focus every night,” Scioscia said. “There’s nothing that happened the last two nights to indicate we’re doing anything differently. We just haven’t gotten it done.”

The Angels, who were shut out in Baltimore Thursday, accumulated 12 hits Friday, but barely dented starter Jose Contreras, who allowed three runs and 11 hits in 7 1/3 innings to improve to 9-16.

Colon, sidelined for almost two months because of an elbow irritation, had good velocity -- his fastball was clocked between 90 and 94 mph -- and what he called “the best breaking ball I’ve had all season.”

Twice, Colon struck out White Sox slugger Jim Thome, who came up short in his bid for career home run No. 500, an accomplishment that left Colon with mixed feelings.

Colon said Thome “took me under his wing and showed me what it meant to be a big league player” when the two were teammates in Cleveland in the 1990s.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I would have been happy if he hit it off me because of what he did for me, what he and his wife meant to me over the years,” Colon said through an interpreter. “He’s one of the best examples for all ballplayers, on the field and off the field.”

Colon worked his way out of a runners-on-second-and-third, no-out jam in the second, but bad luck and bad defense torpedoed Colon in the third.

Jerry Owens walked with one out, and Josh Fields reached on a bunt single. Kotchman robbed Thome of a double with a diving stop of a grounder, but Konerko walked to load the bases, and Dye’s shattered-bat single gave Chicago a 2-1 lead.

A.J. Pierzynski followed with a chopper to third, but Izturis, who had made one error since July 13, bounced a throw to first that Kotchman couldn’t handle, allowing Konerko to score.

Kotchman, in a desperate attempt to nail Konerko at the plate, bounced a throw past catcher Jeff Mathis, allowing Dye to score for a 4-1 lead. The young first baseman took the blame for both errors.

“That’s my fault,” Kotchman said of the Izturis miscue. “I have to pick it cleanly or keep it in front of me so the runners can’t advance. I didn’t do either.”

And the throw home?

“That’s what happens when you try to force something out of nothing,” he said.

Konerko doubled off Colon to open the fifth and scored on Juan Uribe’s two-out single to make it 5-1, a big enough cushion for the White Sox to absorb Howie Kendrick’s run-scoring single in the sixth and Kendry Morales’ RBI double in the eighth. Demoted starter Ervin Santana threw three hitless relief innings for the Angels.

“In the fifth inning, his pitch count was getting up there and a few balls were elevated, but outside of that, I thought he maintained his stuff throughout the game,” Scioscia said of Colon. “If we minimize damage in that one inning and make a play, maybe it doesn’t cost him as many pitches and he finishes a little crisper.”

Colon was expected to get two or three starts to prove to the Angels he belonged on the playoff roster, but Scioscia wouldn’t commit to another start.

“There will be some things to look at,” he said. “Obviously, Bart pitched much better than the fate he had. His velocity was good, he had good movement, and he threw some good breaking balls.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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Magic number

9 Combination of Angels wins and Seattle losses that will clinch the West (H: Home games left. A: Road games left.)

*--* WEST W L PCT GB H A ANGELS 86 61 585 -- 7 8 Seattle 78 68 534 7 1/2 9 7 *--*