Rosenthal: Source: D-backs ‘can’t conceive’ of Haren trade

Not even an immaculate conception?

As the Angels recently discovered, the D-backs do not intend to trade Haren, who leads the National League in ERA.

“I almost can’t conceive of a package that would motivate us to move him,” one Diamondbacks official said.

The D-backs, viewing Haren as a critical part of their future, declined to engage in serious discussions with the Angels, who could have used their surplus of catchers and middle infielders to put together a blockbuster offer.

The talks could accelerate if the Angels overwhelmed the Diamondbacks with the right combination of players, one source said. But such a deal, for now, appears to be a longshot.

“Surplus of catchers and middle infielders?” Ken, put down the pipe! I’m sure the Dbacks can’t wait to jump on an offer of, say, Jeff Mathis, Sean Rodriguez and Howie Kendrick. Their combined OPS+ doesn’t even add up to Haren’s ERA+ this year…

OC Register: Chone Smith Can See The Future

Forget Miss Clio… Call CHONE now!

SAM MILLER/OCR: Before I go to some players outperforming or underperforming projections, though, this is quoting you… you were asked which Angel could collapse, which would break out: “If I have to pick one maybe Howie Kendrick. I’m worried about the injuries and inability to lay off the slider outside stalling his development. With his lack of patience, he has to hit .300 to be an asset, .270 would be a disaster. … Weaver will take the step forward to become an ace, like Lackey, Santana, and Saunders have before him. My projections see him as the equal to Lackey and Santana.” You’re a witch!!!

Chone Smith: That looks pretty good. But I take no pleasure in Kendrick’s struggles.

SAM MILLER/OCR: Do you think our projections will get any better, or have we reached the limit of what we can feed into them?
Chone Smith: I thought they had reached some kind of limit, and actually hoped that I’d have a stable system so I could focus on other projects, but there is a lot more I can do. David Wright has taught me that in the past week. (Editor’s note: Wright has an unheard of batting average on balls in play this year, so he’s hitting for high average despite setting new personal highs in strikeouts and lows in home runs.)

The developer of the CHONE projection system, Sean Smith, on his way to fame and fortune. Or at least fame.

NBC Sports: Off-duty cop shoots 2 in lot after Angels game

An off-duty police officer shot and wounded two men who had assaulted him in the crowded Angel Stadium parking lot after Wednesday night’s Colorado Rockies-Los Angeles Angels game, authorities said.

The officer, who was walking to his car with his wife and two small children about 25 minutes after the game, was hit in the head with a bottle or club, police Sgt. Tim Schmidt said.

“We think he was the victim of a crime,” Schmidt said.

L.A. Times: Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw shuts down the Angels

The Angels had their chances for a comeback in the eighth and ninth innings Sunday, but the Dodgers were able to stay out of reach for a 5-3 victory Sunday evening at Angel Stadium.

The Dodgers won their second Freeway Series of the season by handing the Angels their second consecutive loss. The Dodgers improved their record to 46-24, four wins better than the Boston Red Sox, the next closest team in the majors, and seven wins better than any National League team.

The Angels lost their second consecutive game and remain half a game behind the Rangers in the A.L. West.

Clayton Kershaw (4-5) gave the Dodgers all the pitching support they would need in a winning effort. He pitched seven innings of scoreless ball and gave up four hits, walked four and struck out five. Angels starter John Lackey (2-3) pitched eight innings, but gave up four runs on nine hits and took the loss.

The Dodgers took the early lead, but did their best to let the Angels back in the game.

Protecting a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth, Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton allowed a single to Bobby Abreu. Torii Hunter then hit a ball to the warning track that bounced off of the heel of center fielder Matt Kemp’s glove, allowing Abreu to score.

Vladimir Guerrero grounded out to Broxton, but Hunter advanced to third on the play, and Juan Rivera’s single scored Hunter to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 5-3.

L.A. Times: Torii Hunter is the best thing in L.A. baseball

All right. All right. So he’s not the biggest, baddest and most powerful. So he doesn’t have the glossy name he’d have if his first years had been spent in Boston or New York, or even Chavez Ravine.

He doesn’t have dreadlocks and an enigmatic, flaky-but-mostly lovable personality. Or a jersey number like 99. Or even a single season with more than 40 home runs.

But he does have this: character—the only cheating he’s ever been accused of is cheating others out of home runs with a jump and a glove.

And this: During this season of baseball in L.A. and its environs, a season of anguish, broken hearts and never-say-never excitement typified by Saturday’s 6-4 Dodgers win over the Angels, Torii Hunter is simply the best thing going.

Among our mega-region’s two big league teams, nobody has been better. He’s been so impressive, been such an important cog for a squad that has suffered the most human of stings, that a real case can be made for Hunter as current American League MVP.

Honest, did you think we’d arrive here? There was a time, shortly after the Angels signed Hunter two winters ago, when a loud cry came from certain sections of Anaheim fandom: The Angels just signed 32-year-old Torii Hunter for five years at $18 million per? What a crock! He’s a good player and decent guy, the Internet-emboldened ranting went, but he’s no A-Rod or Miguel Cabrera or Miguel Tejada, to name just three players heavily pined-for back then.

L.A. Times:  Dodgers beat Angels as Weaver brothers’ duel fails to develop

The older brother has the bragging rights.

Jered Weaver could become the first member of his family to become an All-Star next month, but he wasn’t nearly as sharp as Jeff Weaver on Saturday night at Angel Stadium.

The elder Weaver gave up two runs in five-plus innings and Andre Ethier drove in two runs to lead the Dodgers to a 6-4 victory that snapped the Angels’ seven-game winning streak.

With their parents sitting behind home plate wearing custom-made jerseys with “Wea” across the back in Dodgers blue and “ver” in Angels red, the Weavers became the first brothers to face each other in a major league game since Andy and Alan Benes in September 2002.

It wasn’t a memorable encounter for Jered Weaver (7-3), who gave up 10 hits and six runs in 5 1/3 innings. It was as many runs as Weaver had allowed in 53 2/3 innings at home this season before Saturday.

Russell Martin hit his first homer of the season for the Dodgers, who won for only the third time in their last 10 games at Angel Stadium.

L.A. Times: Kurt Streeter: Count quality, not pitches

Yes, there’s a gray area here. There’s an art to when a pitcher should be pulled that takes into account his history of injury, how smoothly he has progressed through a game, how well he rebounds from tough games. I just worry that in too many cases the art is being tossed by the wayside. Hard numbers hold too much sway.

Larry Bowa agrees. The Dodgers’ third base coach, famously tough, sneered when asked about pitch counts. “I don’t like ‘em,” he said, noting that he’d make some exceptions for young players and whippet-thin ones. “This stuff is hurting the game. These guys get to 100 pitches and they start looking for help. They don’t know how to pitch out of a jam or bring home the win.”

Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt hardly hid his thoughts either. He called this a problem deeply woven into modern baseball, one that’s awfully hard to stop at the major league level. “You get guys like Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw and they’ve been on a pitch count since the minors,” he said. “They’re 24 and 25 and it’s hard to get them off it.”

Things won’t ever go back to the way they used to be, nor should they. But Honeycutt said baseball can move in a more balanced direction if jolted by a successful team that goes against the grain. Down in Texas, in his second year as president of the Rangers, Ryan is trying to do just that. His mantra, from the minors on up: toss the pitch counts to the side—let the pitchers show their stuff.

Said Honeycutt: “You’ve got to have a guy like a Nolan Ryan saying ‘enough of this stuff, there’s no reason in the world these guys can’t go 120 pitches. No reason at all.’ A guy like Ryan, maybe he can shock the world.”

Rob Neyer: On deck: Weaver vs. Weaver

If, as planned, Jeff Weaver faces Jered Weaver Saturday night, according to the Los Angeles Daily News:

Cool. I’ve already set my DVR. But the one thing I want to know, I don’t yet: which set of brothers will the Weavers be? The Niekros, the Beneses, and the Martinezes account for at least 11 of the 20 previous matchups.

Because you pay good money (not) to read this blog, I did a little research of my own, and discovered that:

• Virgil Barnes and Jesse Barnes faced off for the first time in 1924, and would meet three more times;

• Greg and Mike Maddux met twice, first in 1986 when both were rookies, and then again two years later;

• by special arrangement, Pat Underwood’s major league debut in 1979 was against his brother Tom (and what a matchup it was!);

• the Underwoods, the Martinezes, and the Beneses faced off just the once,

• as did Gaylord and Jim Perry, in 1973.

So that’s the whole list, right? Wait, let me run through the math ... Nope, still missing one. We’ve got seven sets of brothers accounting for 19 matchups: the Niekros nine times, the Barneses four times, the Madduxes twice, and four other sets once apiece. Nineteen. Assuming that I didn’t miss a game for one of the aforementioned pairs, a lovely No-Prize goes to whomever can identify the eighth brothers and drop them into the comments.

L.A. Times: Juan Pierre and Chone Figgins remain fast friends

Juan Pierre was the first guy to the ballpark every day. Chone Figgins wasn’t far behind him.

Pierre and Figgins were the last guys to leave the ballpark too. No reason for their teammates to suspect anything. Probably another round or two in the batting cage.

But it’s no fun hitting on an empty stomach, and there’s no money at the lowest rungs of the minor leagues. And after every game, as players showered and dressed, concession workers would drop off a few unsold hot dogs for the coaching staff.

So, with the same combination of observation, patience and instinct that would help them develop into two of baseball’s premier stolen-base artists, Pierre and Figgins would wait out their teammates, then stroll into the coaches’ office and politely ask for a couple of hot dogs.

“They’d wait until no one could see them,” said Jim Eppard, who managed the Portland (Ore.) Rockies that season. “We never really ate the food, so we always gave them some.

“They’ve come a long way from taking the coaches’ food out of the clubhouse.”

They’ve come to Anaheim, as best friends and opposing leadoff hitters in tonight’s renewal of the Freeway Series. They can afford to eat well these days, and they’ll eat together for three days.

With Figgins eligible for free agency this fall and Pierre longing to be traded somewhere he can play every day, this might well be the last time the buddies face off against each other in Southern California. Pierre won’t need to commute from L.A. this weekend; he’s staying with Figgins in Orange County.

ESPN: Angels and Dodgers: A possible World Series preview?

This Dodgers heading over to play the Angels is definitely the best interleague series of the weekend. It’s the best team in the NL against the hottest team in the AL. It is still very early, but the case can easily be made that this could end up being a World Series preview if the Angels continue to hit the way they’ve hit.

This makes for a very good series. To add just a little more interest to this meeting, you have a sibling matchup set for Saturday, with Jeff and Jared Weaver pitching against each other. You’ve got to love that. There is also a pretty good matchup on “Sunday Night Baseball,” with the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw up against the Angels’ John Lackey. So there’s really nothing to dislike about this series at Angel Stadium.

The Dodgers have done a nice job of scoring runs, averaging five runs a game and, again, they’ve done it mostly without having Ramirez in the middle of the lineup. They’ve got tremendous help in their bullpen from guys they didn’t expect to get much out of. Ramon Troncoso has been terrific. The kid who, at one time, was nearly the final pitcher on the Dodgers’ roster is walking around with a 2.34 ERA and 1.28 WHIP.

Burriss riding 0-for-27, Palmer’s Halo effect, Sandoval is a Vlad/Gwynn hybrid, Mcpherson

–
I noticed that closer Brian Wilson seems to have added a few accoutrements to his gestures after a save. In addition to the crossed arms motion, he kisses the tattoo on his wrist (it means “All honor to Him” in Celtic), taps the brim of his cap and taps his heart.

“Head for memory, heart for strength,” Wilson said.

–
Bengie Molina, on what he told John Lackey before the rookie started Game 7 of the 2002 World Series:

“We went through the hitters, but your heart is going so fast and everything is happening so quick,” Molina said. “That’s not the time to say much. Just give him the ball. You know, his demeanor and his way of taking care of things, it told me he was the right guy for that game. I never had any doubt in my mind.”

Scioscia said he went to then-pitching coach Buddy Black after the Game 6 comeback win and asked who was left for Game 7. Black said it was Lackey. Scioscia said, “OK.”

End of conversation.

L.A. Times:  Izturis over Rodriguez: It’s ping over power

Mike Scioscia’s loyalty knows no bounds. At least when it comes to Maicer Izturis.

You’ve heard of guys having a man crush? Well, Scioscia has a manager’s crush when it comes to the little man he calls “Izzy.”

How else can you explain his insistence that Izturis, with no home runs on a team that ranks 13th in the 14-club American League in homers, will continue to play second base, despite the presence of just-called-up Sean Rodriguez, who was leading the Pacific Coast League with 21 home runs?

“When Izzy goes five for eight [as he did against the San Diego Padres for a couple of games], it’s tough to take him out,” the Angels manager said Sunday. Remember, this is the same manager who has had Izturis batting third on occasion.

What about platooning the right-handed-hitting Rodriguez with Izturis, who is a much more effective hitter left-handed? Nope, that doesn’t seem in the plans, either. “We want to keep Izzy fresh,” Scioscia said, “but we’re not going to platoon. We’ll give Sean some playing time.”

This is no knock on Izturis. He’s a solid little player with good skills. But despite what occurred during the sweep of the pathetic Padres over the weekend, the Angels are still glaringly short on power. When Bobby Abreu and Vladimir Guerrero have combined for only three home runs in nearly 310 at-bats, you’ve got a problem, folks.

Your left side of the infield, with Chone Figgins and Erick Aybar, provides little or no power. And of late both catchers have been mired in deep slumps.

LA Times: Season-ending injury for Scot Shields.

Angels reliever Scot Shields said today he had opted for season-ending surgery on his troublesome left knee. Shields said it was “something I feel I have to do to come back 100% next year.”

Bilbo: I used to know this guy, Minty. He had a dog who he’d trained to attack rich people. He was into the whole class-war thing. He called the dog Gramsci after an Italian Marxist. Rumor has it, it could smell wealth from up to 20 feet. The thing is, it all backfired. Minty won 100 grand on a scratchcard and Gramsci bit his knees off.
Tim: That’s terrible.
Bilbo: Not really. He used the money to buy new knees.

DiGiovanna: Howie Kendrick’s demotion is not a message

To be an anarchist in Salt Lake City is certainly no easy task, especially in 2009.

Howie Kendrick’s demotion to triple-A Salt Lake after Friday night’s game did not come with a produce-or-else edict for the rest of the Angels, Manager Mike Scioscia insisted.

“No message needed to be sent to the clubhouse,” Scioscia said. “These guys understand the expectations. This move was about trying to get Howie back on track.”

Still, when two young, underachieving players are demoted within four days—reliever Jose Arredondo was sent to Salt Lake on Tuesday—the message is clear that the status quo for a team that has suffered breakdowns in every phase of the game will not be accepted.

..."There have been scores of players who have come up to the big leagues and had success, but when you’re trying to make a footprint, it takes more than the first go-round,” Scioscia said.

“Rather than continue to grind it out here, Howie had to take a detour. He feels it will be beneficial to go down there, look in the mirror and find his game.”

AP: Adenhart driver had alcohol in blood

SANTA ANA, Calif.—Alcohol was found in the woman who was driving Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart before they were both killed in a collision in April, according to toxicology tests released Wednesday.

The tests show Courtney Stewart, 20, consumed alcohol shortly before the crash, but the coroner’s office could not determine how much she drank, and prosecutors were doubtful the finding could be used at the trial of the man charged with their deaths.

Stewart, along with Adenhart and Henry Pearson, died when their car was broadsided April 9 in Fullerton by a minivan allegedly driven by Andrew Gallo. Police said Gallo’s blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit at the time of the crash.

“The bottom line is that [Stewart’s alcohol consumption is] completely irrelevant; nothing she did contributed to this crash,” said Orange County Deputy District Attorney Susan Price. “It’s not uncommon when you’re dealing with late-night crashes that both parties have alcohol in their systems. That doesn’t absolve the defendant of criminal responsibility.”

2 minor leaguers with Angels accused in Tempe assault

Two new minor league Anaheim Angels baseball players were arrested on suspicion of assault in Tempe Tuesday, police said.

Police said the suspects, Michael Rocco and Matthew Oye, tried to avoid officers by fleeing the scene on foot.

Witnesses said they saw two men kicking and hitting an adult male who was lying on the ground behind an unidentified bar on the 500 block of South Mill Avenue. Police said the incident began as an argument and escalated.

Police chased down both suspects, arresting Oye in front of the Tempe Police Main Station and Rocco near East 6th Street and South Myrtle Avenue.

Fired Angels scouting supervisor is subject of bonus-skimming probe

The Los Angeles Angels international supervisor of scouting fired on Monday is a subject of an ongoing Major League Baseball Department of Investigations probe into the skimming of signing bonuses given to prospects from Latin America, SI.com has learned.

The Angels dismissed Clay Daniel—who joined the club nine years ago and oversaw the signings of, among others, pitcher Ervin Santana and shortstop Erick Aybar, both from the Dominican Republic, and first baseman Kendry Morales from Cuba—a month before the July 2 international signing day, the most hectic time on the international baseball calendar. Scouts in Daniel’s position are often making final evaluations and brokering deals for top-level talent in Latin American countries at this time.

The Angels declined to elaborate on Daniel’s firing when contacted by SI.com on Thursday night, saying only that he was no longer with the club, but sources tell SI.com that the team grew concerned about possible financial misdeeds by scouts in Venezuela under Daniel’s supervision. One baseball source tells SI.com that the Angels also dismissed several of their Venezuelan scouts along with Daniel.

Skimming = Bad
That is all.

Baseball Digest: Healey: The Rumor Mill

According to an industry source, suddenly out of work pitchers Tom Glavine and Vicente Padilla will not be jobless for long.

One NL exec told BaseballDigest.com on Wednesday night the Phillies “like both pitchers and will sign one of them before the week is out.”

“The Phillies have been waiting for just this type of opportunity; take a veteran starter for a test drive for the next month or so before having to make any hard decisions about (San Diego’s Jake) Peavy or (Houston’s Roy) Oswalt.”

Glavine, who spurned the Phillies for the Mets back in 2003, is said to be “furious” with how the Braves handled the situation and “can’t wait to stick it up their (bleep).” Signing with the Phillies would go a long way towards fulfilling that goal.

...As for Padilla, there’s word from the West Coast that the Angels have already spoken to Padilla’s agent to discuss terms, and the White Sox have inquired as well. However according to an NL East scout, the Mets had a front office official watch Padilla’s start against the Yankees on Tuesday night, and “liked what he saw”.

Yep...a Game Score of 16 is some sweet viewing.

L.A. Times: Maizer Izturis, not Howie Kendrick, to start at second base

Reporting from Toronto—The Angels benched second baseman Howie Kendrick for tonight’s game, and Manager Mike Scioscia would not say whether Kendrick would play Thursday.

Maicer Izturis started at second base tonight.

“Just getting Izzy in there to get a little offense,” Scioscia said.

Scioscia said he had decided to keep Kendrick out of tonight’s lineup before Tuesday’s game, in which Kendrick made a critical baserunning error.

Kendrick, who hit .322 and .306 in his first two major league seasons, is batting .227 with a .267 on-base percentage.

He did not start for the seventh time in 23 games. Batting coach Mickey Hatcher said Tuesday that Kendrick’s confidence is waning, and Scioscia acknowledged the Angels have considered sending Kendrick to the minor leagues.

“That’s an option for any young player,” Scioscia said. “It’s something we look at. We’re going to continue to look at it.”

Macier Izturis triple slash stats as of 06/02/09: .262/.301/.291

Offense my foot, he just doesn’t want to use his better options down at Triple-A.

Mrs. Singleton: 29 Angels

And here I thought Mrs. Daulton’s 2012END license plate was a bit on the kookifried side.

A comment posted here on Mrs. Singy by “jik2” asked if I would explain the meaning of our SUV’s license plate - 29ANGLS - which s/he once spotted in Syracuse, New York, as Ken exited from the car. (Ken had been attending a Chiefs Triple-A baseball game when our son Justin had played in the Toronto Blue Jays system.)

I never meant to confuse anyone with my vanity plate into thinking that the number 29 and the word angels corresponded to a baseball player on a Los Angeles team. It doesn’t of course; rather it’s a combination of Ken’s jersey number and my passion and belief in celestial beings. Angels decorate our lawn, our home, me, and The Angelmobile - the nickname with which I’ve christened our Nissan Armada.

It was also the name of a small business I began in 1997 when I self-published a theme gift-giving book (Clever Gift Giving) and merged our two passions to create Twenty-Nine Angels Publishing. Although I moved along after three books (also Clever Party Planning and Clever Costume Creating for Halloween), I kept the license plate because of its double and special significance.

Comical how people furrow their brows trying to figure it out - they almost never do. Even if they remember 29 was Ken’s number, they say, “Wait, he never played for the Angels.”

Exactly.

Halladay strikes out career-best 14 for Blue Jays

Halladay (9-1) gave up seven hits, none of them for extra bases. He threw 132 pitches for his 42nd career complete game, finishing with a flourish by striking out the side in the ninth.

Halladay is the first major leaguer to nine wins this season, and he moved to third in the American League with 82 strikeouts. Toronto’s bullpen blew a five-run lead in Halladay’s last start, while in his previous outing he threw seven shutout innings before the Blue Jays eventually lost.

The right-hander has gone at least seven innings in all 12 starts.

Bill Kelso, former player and scout, dies

Bill Kelso, who started the original Kelso’s restaurant chain along with making a name for himself as a professional baseball player and scout, died Monday, May 11, at his home. He was 69 years old.

He died in his favorite chair while watching sports, said Jeff Kelso, Bill’s son.

Jeff Kelso said his father spent a career of nearly 40 years in the baseball world first as a player then as a coach and scout.

Kelso began his baseball career with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1962. He was then traded to the California Angels where he spent three seasons from 1964 to 1967. He played his final game with the Cincinnati Reds in 1968.

After completion of his playing career in the 1960s, he coached and was a professional scout for 30 years.

119 career games, including 69 in 1967.
Best wishes to his family.

Angels have a big-game Hunter on their side to beat Dodgers

After the game I got a call from one Butch da Bookie telling me..."I don’t wanna hear #### from the Sabermetric crowd, Torii Hunter is the greatest centerfielder I’ve ever...........” (luckily, my Flanders weed burgers needed a timely flip just then)

Torii Hunter not only can take a pounding, he can deliver one too.

The Angels center fielder, laid out on the outfield warning track after making another highlight-reel defensive play, got back up, dusted himself off and helped knock the Dodgers woozy in the finale of a three-game interleague series.

...Hunter made the difference with his glove and bat before leaving after seven innings with tightness in his right leg.

The Dodgers led 4-2 in the fourth inning when Matt Kemp hit a drive to deep center. Hunter sprinted back and to his right and made a frightening crash into the padded wall while making the catch.

Hunter was visited by two Angels trainers as he laid supine for nearly five minutes. Scioscia said Hunter was struggling to catch his breath.

“I don’t think he was going to come out of that game if we tied him up and put him on a stretcher,” Scioscia said.

..."He’s been doing that to people forever,” Kemp said. “He told me he was going to do that, too. He said, “‘Don’t hit the ball to me.’ That’s my boy, man, we’re always talking.

L.A. Times: Minor league free agents can play major roles

If the Angels win the American League West by a game or two, they can thank the free agent who stabilized their starting rotation.

Wait, you might say. The Angels did not sign a starting pitcher in free agency.

We spend all winter chronicling free agency among the millionaires, tracking the bidding for the likes of CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira. We don’t follow the much larger pool of minor league free agents, the one in which the Angels landed Matt Palmer and the Dodgers reeled in Ronald Belisario.

It is an intriguing and obscure ritual of winter, the mating dance between teams looking for understudies and spare parts and players looking for second chances, third chances and last chances.

No headlines, no stories, no matter—not until a guy like Palmer or Belisario shows up, a guy who can’t carry your team into the playoffs but can give you an unexpected nudge toward October.

“It’s a huge part of the process,” said Kim Ng, the Dodgers’ assistant general manager. “Look at any club over the course of the year and how many guys they actually use. It’s not 28 or 29. It’s closer to 40.”

L.A. Times: Angels employ a five-man infield that works in the ninth but proves futile in 10th.

Did you get all that?

The Angels pulled out all the stops and inserted an extra shortstop during a wacky ninth inning Saturday in which they employed a five-man infield and made a pitching change during the middle of an at-bat while attempting to preserve a tie against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.

The five-man infield worked in the ninth but proved futile when a bout of wildness by reliever Jose Arredondo doomed the Angels in the 10th inning of a 5-4 loss.

The zaniness started with one out in the ninth and Orlando Hudson on first base. With a one-and-one count on Jamie Hoffman, Angels reliever Scot Shields made an errant pickoff throw that allowed Hudson to move all the way to third base.

That’s when Manager Mike Scioscia went to a five-man infield. Maicer Izturis replaced left fielder Juan Rivera but remained in the infield, with the Angels positioning three players—Izturis, third baseman Chone Figgins and shortstop Erick Aybar—on the left side of second base. Center fielder Torii Hunter stood in left-center field and right fielder Gary Matthews Jr. shaded toward right-center.

“The primary thing is to defend what you can,” Scioscia said. “If you can get the ground ball you want to plug up as much as you can. You get a routine fly ball and the game’s over.”

This is the 2nd time in 4 games that somebody used the 5 man infield defense against the Dodgers. First, it was the Mets calling Beltran in as the extra infielder, and then tonight’s game.

O.C. Register: 10 reasons the Dodgers will outlast the Angels

9. Ned’s on the phone—Until the trades that got Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake to L.A., many people thought Ned Colletti’s wheelings and dealings were futile. But unlike his Angels counterparts, Colletti does things around the trading deadline.Before Angels GM Tony Reagins landed Mark Teixeira last year, many Angels fans were uncertain if the Angels had a GM. His predecessor, Bill Stoneman, was fond of silence in July.

Angels’ Moseley has setback, will have more tests

Gimcracks and gewgaws...Mose is down.

The Angels aren’t planning on seeing right-handed pitcher Dustin Moseley in a game any time soon.

He has stopped throwing and returned to Southern California for a series of medical tests designed to see where the pain in his neck and right arm is coming from.

The 27-year-old Moseley began the season in the starting rotation and pitched three times before tightness in his right forearm forced him onto the disabled list April 18.

He’d been throwing at the club’s extended spring training camp in Tempe, Ariz., but that came to a halt last week.

“He threw a bullpen session, and he felt OK when he was throwing,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “But he didn’t bounce back like we’d hoped. He’s feeling pain in his neck and forearm and we’re going to have him checked out.”

Diamond Notes: JetBlue turns red

Remember all the publicity JetBlue got when they offered Manny Fan Fares for $99 shortly after his signing? Well, the last flight at those prices leaves in two days. And now, there’s this press release:

JetBlue Airways Becomes the Official and Exclusive
Airline of Angels Baseball

— Airline hosts “FANtastic” Giveaway benefiting the Adopt-A-School Program at
12 p.m. PT on Wed., May 20 at Angel Stadium

— First 346 customers (the total number of Angels hits to-date) who bring a book donation

and dress in Angels gear will receive a free roundtrip certificate (a)

Oops.

MLB.com: Rangers prevail over Angels in finale

Sparked by Josh Hamilton’s breath-taking catch in center field, the Rangers completed a sweep of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim with a 3-0 victory on Sunday afternoon at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
...
The Angels had one on and one out in the seventh when Howie Kendrick crushed a pitch to deep right-center. Hamilton sprinted back to the wall at the far end of the Rangers bullpen, leaped up on the dead run and made the catch as he crashed into the wall.
...
The Rangers have now won seven straight and 17 of their last 22 games to open up a 4 1/2 game lead in the American League West.

MLB: Lackey ejected two pitches into debut

As the bullpen call for Ernie Shore went unanswered…

Two pitches into his season debut, Angels right-hander John Lackey was ejected by home-plate umpire Bob Davidson on Saturday afternoon.

Lackey’s first pitch to Ian Kinsler was behind the Texas leadoff man, who homered twice in Friday night’s series opener taken by the Rangers, 10-8. The second delivery by the 6-foot-6 right-hander caught Kinsler in the left side.

Davidson immediately gave Lackey the heave-ho, bringing Angels manager Mike Scioscia racing out of the dugout.

...Kinsler had robbed Maicer Izturis of a hit in the top of the first inning as the Angels were taking a 1-0 lead against Vicente Padilla. Kinsler has 11 homers and 31 RBIs, leading his team in both power departments, and is batting .318.

After being awarded first base, Kinsler stole second and came around to score, tying the game, on Josh Hamilton’s sacrifice fly.