Sweep really hurts Angels

ARLINGTON, Texas -- This is what Mike Scioscia feared. While many fans clamored for the Angels to play their starters all week in a push for home-field advantage in the playoffs, the Angels’ manager chose to rest many regulars in hopes of avoiding injury.

So much for playing it safe. Injury still found the Angels on Wednesday during an ugly 16-2 loss to Texas that completed the Rangers’ first three-game sweep of the Angels since 2001 and further reduced the Angels’ chances of gaining home field in the American League division series next week.

Gary Matthews Jr., who sat out two weeks this month because of a sprained right ankle, hurt his left knee while catching Nelson Cruz’s first-inning drive on the warning track, an injury that could threaten the center fielder’s playoff availability and put a huge dent in the team’s defense.

Then in the fifth, slugger Vladimir Guerrero, who was given the previous two games off to “recharge,” as Scioscia said, was hit in the left forearm by a Luis Mendoza fastball.

Guerrero left the game in the seventh and was diagnosed with a bruise, a minor injury that shouldn’t have an impact on the designated hitter’s availability this weekend against Oakland or in the playoffs.

Matthews, who has been bothered since June by patellar tendinitis in his left knee, was another story.

“I’m fairly concerned,” Matthews said, when asked after the game about his playoff status. “It’s pretty painful right now. . . but [the tendon] is still attached to the bone, and there’s no structural damage. It’s irritated, swollen, and I have a cortisone patch on it to get the swelling down.”

Matthews, who was hitless in 11 at-bats in four games since returning from the ankle injury, landed awkwardly on his left knee after lunging to catch Cruz’s fly ball on a soggy warning track to end the first. The start of the game was delayed 31 minutes by rain.

“I thought I would have to jump, and at the last second I contracted my quadriceps pretty strong and irritated it,” Matthews said. “But I don’t think the wet field had anything to do with it.

Matthews came out of the game. The diagnosis was an irritated left knee, an aggravation of an injury he first suffered June 14 when he landed awkwardly after climbing the wall in Cincinnati in pursuit of a Ken Griffey Jr. home run.

Matthews re-injured the knee in an Aug. 6 collision with Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis and hurt it again Aug. 20 trying to avoid a tag at the plate by Yankees catcher Jorge Posada.

“I’m hoping I’m available a week from now,” said Matthews, who planned to use this week to regain his timing at the plate after missing so much time in September. “I’ve worked so hard and endured the whole season. You want to play in the playoffs. . . . I may not get to 100%, but I’ll get as close to it as I can.”

Scioscia is hoping the Angels, who have lost five out of six, can do the same after their most lopsided loss of the season, a debacle of a game in which they gave up 17 hits, a season-high five home runs and a season-high 16 runs, the most since a 16-3 loss to the Dodgers on May 19, 2006.

“The playoffs are their own entity, but we’re going to feel better about ourselves if we carry some momentum out of the regular season,” Scioscia said. “We’ve played terrific baseball for a long time. We’ve had a handful of dry spots, and this series was one of them. We need to get going this weekend, push it and get into our game.”

Joe Saunders, the projected Game 4 playoff starter, was rocked for seven runs and nine hits, including two-run home runs by Sammy Sosa and Cruz and a solo shot by Gerald Laird, in five innings and is now 1-4 with a 6.63 earned-run average in his last seven starts. It will be at least 12 days before the left-hander starts again.

“I have a little body soreness, I’m a little tired, but I’ve got to kick it into fifth gear now and get ready for the postseason,” said Saunders, who fell behind on too many counts Wednesday. “A little time off should help a lot. I’ll throw a few bullpen sessions, but my arm needs a little break.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com