The time is now for Angels

The Angels returned Friday from a downer trip and were greeted with the June gloom of Southern California. The sun never quite broke through in Anaheim, but the Angels did.

They needed a big night, a spirit booster, and they got just that with an 11-6 victory over the San Diego Padres that included a team-record-tying seven consecutive hits in a five-run fourth inning.

This is not routine stuff by any means for the Angels, winners of their division four of the last five seasons. The start of this one has been a struggle. If last year was a model of smooth efficiency, 2009 has been a bump and grind.

In 2008, when the Angels won the American League West by 21 games with baseball’s best record of 100-62, they were 34-24 in the first 58 games. Thursday’s embarrassing 11-1 loss at Tampa Bay left them at 29-29.

Manager Mike Scioscia points to injured players, departed players, and unnamed under-performing players. He ripped the team in general after the game in Tampa Bay, then climbed on a plane with them and flew all night to get back for a new day.

And that it was, even though the cross-country trip and a short night’s sleep hadn’t changed his mood before the game.

“We are at a point now,” Scioscia said, “where, while I’m not going to say there needs to be a sense of urgency, we need to start doing things we have the potential to do.”

No sense of urgency, but he also didn’t mean waiting for a couple of weeks.

Center fielder Torii Hunter, the rock in the middle of lots of crumbling so far, was more direct.

“You can’t think you have plenty of time, you can’t say it’s still early,” he said. “You do that and before you know it, it’s August.

“I expect to be in first place. Three or four games out, that’s too many. This is the time.”

Two others who have been more rock than crumble, third baseman Chone Figgins and right fielder Bobby Abreu, talked before the game about leading by example, more than by rah-rah. Abreu mentioned things such as Figgins, the lead-off batter, working the count, battling hard in his first at bat, setting the tone for the game that way. Figgins did just that against the Padres’ Chad Gaudin, fouling off five pitches before pushing a Texas League pop over the third baseman’s head for an opening double.

Scioscia had talked before the game about one specific irritant.

“We get a runner to second base with no outs,” he said, “and we leave him there. It is especially bad when we have left-handed hitters following him.”

Lefty-hitting Abreu followed Figgins to the plate and singled him home. Then Hunter followed with a two-run homer, the Angels’ first homer in 35 innings.

Suddenly, there was tangible evidence of players listening to each other, as well as to their manager. There was also evidence that this is nowhere near the oiled machine that worked on all pistons until the playoffs last season.

The Angels allowed the tying run across on a passed ball. The Padres actually walked Hunter to get at a struggling Vlad Guerrero, unheard of in past seasons, when teams would rather face a bazooka than Guerrero. And Maicer Izturis ran them out of a potentially bigger inning when he allowed himself to be doubled off at second on a little looper that the Padres’ Luis Rodriguez ran down over his shoulder. Izturis stood 20 feet beyond second as Rodriguez made a good, but not spectacular, play.

That was mental stuff that didn’t matter with a six-run lead, but usually does.

Still, the good outweighed the bad on a night when the Angels needed exactly that to happen. For example, Izturis offset his daydreaming with a four-hit night.

The Angels’ bullpen, once the model of what one should be, but now carrying the worst earned-run average in the majors, gave up a couple of runs but held off the floodwaters. The Angels even got a break before the game, when the Padres announced that ace Jake Peavy, scheduled to pitch tonight, was injured. Instead, they will face Josh Geer, ERA 5.60.

So, with 26 of their next 38 games at home and no trip longer than to Texas until July 20 -- and with the first-place Rangers still 4 1/2 games ahead -- it is prime moving time.

“We’re not playing to our ability,” Scioscia said, “but we aren’t horrible, either.”

His assessment could be described as somewhat sunny, much like the weather these days.

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bill.dwyre@latimes.com