Angels, in a weak spot, lose to Tampa Bay, 7-2

The Rays expose just about every weakness the Angels have, as they struggle offensively and starter Scott Kazmir gives up three runs and seven hits.

The rotation isn't nearly as good as they thought it would be, the bullpen has only two relievers they can rely on, and there are gaping holes in a lineup Mike Scioscia thought would be among the strongest and deepest he's had in his 11 years as manager.

The Angels have won five of the last six American League West titles, but they do not look like contenders so far this season.

The Tampa Bay Rays exposed just about every weakness the Angels have in a 7-2 victory in Angel Stadium on Tuesday night, dropping the Angels to 15-20.

Scott Kazmir threw 108 pitches in five innings — the norm for the inefficient Angels left-hander this season — giving up three runs, seven hits and walking three, and Evan Longoria greeted reliever Scot Shields with a game-breaking three-run homer in the seventh.

The Angels had two runs and six hits in 71/3 innings off Rays right-hander Jeff Niemann (3-0), and their eighth-inning rally fizzled when Rays reliever Grant Balfour struck out Howie Kendrick and got Michael Ryan to ground out with the bases loaded to end the inning.

"All the cylinders aren't clicking right now," center fielder Torii Hunter said. "When we hit, the pitching is not right, and when the pitching is right, we don't hit. Everything is not coming together like we want it to, but the season is not over."

This lineup was supposed to feature good speed at the top and power throughout, but the Angels rank 11th in the league with a .312 on-base percentage, ninth with a .389 slugging percentage, and they're hitting .250 (70 for 280) with runners in scoring position.

No. 9 hitter Brandon Wood has appeared overmatched, with 31 strikeouts and two walks in 101 at-bats, and his current three-for-30 slump dropped his average from .197 on May 1 to .168.

But the soft spots aren't only at the bottom of the order. No. 5 hitter Hideki Matsui and No. 6 hitter Juan Rivera have put a drag on the offense, and No. 2 hitter Bobby Abreu has not provided his usual production.

Matsui was batting .310 with four homers, six doubles and 11 runs batted in on April 24. Since then, he is six for 52 with no extra-base hits and four RBIs in 15 games, his average falling to .228, which raises the question:

Is the 35-year-old Japanese slugger in a prolonged slump or has age and a pair of arthritic knees finally caught up to him?

Rivera, who did not play Tuesday night, hit .287 with 25 homers and 88 RBIs last season but is batting .236 with four homers — one in his last 20 games — and 15 RBIs.

The 36-year-old Abreu was so good last season — he hit .293 with a .390 on-base percentage, 15 homers, 103 RBIs and 96 runs — the Angels gave him with a two-year, $19-million contract extension.

But Abreu's numbers are way down across the board — the right fielder is batting .257 with a .331 on-base percentage, four homers and 13 RBIs, and he is seven for 42 with no RBIs in his last 11 games.

About the only Angels who are having decent offensive seasons are Kendry Morales, Hunter and Kendrick.

"You're never going to have nine guys on board at the same time," Scioscia said. "The offense isn't flowing right now, and we're going to need that to put some pressure on clubs. It took a while to get to this spot; it's going to take a while to get out."

The same could be said for Kazmir, who remains a work in progress. Kazmir (2-3). He was able to bring his long-lost slider into the game more often and effectively Tuesday, but his fastball command was still off.

"We're still trying to unlock Kaz and get him to be the pitcher we know he can be," Scioscia said. "It was very frustrating tonight. He threw far too many pitches for five innings.

"If he wants to get back to where he was a couple of years ago, he's absolutely going to need that pitch. But it's more than just the slider. He's not getting the fastball in good zones and bringing the changeup into play like he can."

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Tampa Bay Rays rally, then fall to Angels in 11 innings

Apparently the Rays didn't have a hangover from Sunday's perfect game, as they rapped out 12 hits Monday and rallied late to score four actual runs and force extra innings.

But they still have a headache this morning when it turned out to be for naught as the Angels rallied in the 11th for a 5-4 win.

The game ended, at nearly 2:15 Tampa Bay time, when Juan Rivera's sac fly scored Kendry Morales, who singled off Grant Balfour, went to second on a bunt, and then third on a wild pitch that rookie catcher John Jaso insisted was his fault.

"(Bad) way to finish,'' Balfour said. "That's the way it goes.''

But while the Rays lost a season-high third straight, they at least showed some fight that had been missing.

"It was a tough loss, obviously a tough way to lose,'' Evan Longoria said. "But there were a lot of positives, so hopefully we can take that out of today's game and build on it and turn it around tomorrow.''

Consider how bad it had been. Ben Zobrist's single with two outs in the first ended a stretch of 37 Rays hitters making outs in order. And their run in the eighth snapped a 23-inning scoreless streak that dated to the second inning on Saturday.

So when they rallied again and scored three more in the ninth off Angels closer Brian Fuentes to force extra innings, it was something of a monumental achievement.

"We played our butts off tonight,'' said manager Joe Maddon, who was critical of the energy level on Sunday. "I was real pleased with the effort. Great comeback in the end. We just could not get that extra run in.''

They were four outs from a second consecutive shutout, when they suddenly came to life in the eighth. With something of an excuse-me swing, Longoria snapped an 0-for-13 (and 0-for-his-new-haircut) skid, poking a ball down the rightfield line for a double. "I needed that,'' he said. "Everyone was kind hitting ball right at guys today, so for that to fall gave me a little more confidence at the plate.''

After Carlos Peña — in a miserable 1-for-40 skid that has his average down to .179 — broke Fred McGriff's franchise record with his 306th walk, Jaso followed with a run-scoring single, his third hit of the night. That run kept these supposedly high-powered Rays from the brink of infamy, as the 23 consecutive zeroes were three shy of the franchise record for futility, the 26 scoreless innings by the horrid 2002 squad that lost 106 games, featuring the likes of Brent Abernathy, Jared Sandberg, Steve Cox, Chris Gomez and Aubrey Huff.

From there, the Rays added three in the ninth to tie. Willy Aybar homered off Angels closer Brian Fuentes and, after Jason Bartlett hustled to beat out an infield single and Ben Zobrist drew a two-out walk, Longoria delivered a two-run double.

They could have had more as Peña was hit by a pitch and he and Longoria moved up to second and third, but Jaso lined to second.

They had a decent chance in the 10th when Gabe Kapler singled with one out, but leftfielder Juan Rivera ran down Aybar's drive, and Kapler was caught stealing when Angels manager Mike Scioscia apparently had a good idea of what former protégé Maddon would do and called a pitchout.

The Rays still have the best record in the majors at 22-10, but they don't look anything like the team that was playing the best, not with Peña hitting .179, Bartlett in a 6-for-36 slump, Carl Crawford going 0-for-15 before an eighth-inning single and Longoria 0-for-13 until his.

"We were going so good there for so long it seemed like everything was falling,'' Longoria said. "Now it's one of those times where everything seems to be hit right at people. And balls that were getting to the wall for them are now going out of the park. We just have to find a way to turn it around,''

For a time, they were still winning games because their starting pitching was dominating. Lately, not so much.

Matt Garza didn't pitch poorly on Monday, but he was hurt deeply by the mistakes he did make, specifically hanging sliders that Torii Hunter and Mike Napoli launched for home runs, during his four-run, seven-hit, 117-pitch, 72/3-inning outing.

"I hung a slider to Torii and I know him really well and I know what he does with those,'' Garza said. "As soon as he hit it, I didn't even look. I just said, Can I get another ball? And Napoli, same thing. It's the big leagues. If you make a mistake, you're lucky if come back.''

Garza didn't allow another hit after the second homer, but by then it was too much.

The Rays didn't have much luck either. In the first inning, leadoff man Erick Aybar's slow roller hugged the first-base line and then kicked off the bag enough to freeze Peña and, with Garza failing to cover, turning into an infield single that led to a run.

And in the eighth, Crawford was running on the pitch when Zobrist grounded a ball up the middle, putting Aybar, the Angels shortstop, in perfect position for an easy double play.

But that's typical for the Rays in Anaheim, where the ballpark is beautiful, the weather great, the scenery pleasant and their experience miserable — 1-14 in Maddon's five seasons, 14-41 overall.

There was some good. Crawford made another amazing fly-through-the-air-with-the-greatest of ease catch, racing to his left at full speed and going airborne to rob Hunter of extra bases, though Aybar did tag up.

Jaso had a good game, getting three hits and throwing out attempted base-stealers to end two innings, but he made a rookie mistakes. There was a catcher's interference and a time out request when Garza was already in his windup, and then the wild pitch at a pivotal time, allowing Morales to move from second to third.

"A little unfortunate the guy could go from second to third there,'' Balfour said. "That made it a little tougher,''

Jaso said the wild pitch, on a 1-and-1 slider that skipped under his glove and then through his legs, shouldn't have happened. "The pitcher is supposed to have confidence he can throw that ball in the dirt if he wants to,'' Jaso said. "I definitely felt it was my fault, and I was to blame for that.

"It went under my glove; my glove should have been down and it should have been blocked, and I just didn't do it. It's my fault.''

Balfour said he felt he had to strike out Rivera, and thought his 1-and-2 slider was going to get the job done. "I felt like I had him,'' Balfour said.

The Rays were playing without centerfielder B.J. Upton, who went back to Tampa for the birth of his first child, leaving them with Sean Rodriguez starting in center and Reid Brignac later making his first professional appearance in the outfield.

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Best starting rotation in baseball? Look no further than Tampa

Ok, so maybe folks in Florida still aren't paying attention to the Tampa Bay Rays, but the rest of the baseball world sure is these days.

The Rays, 18-7, are off to the best start since the New York Yankees in 2003.

And guess what?

They're not going away.

"You hear people talk about that team,'' Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona says, "but no one ever talks about that pitching. That staff is good. Real good. Real, real good.''

Just how good?

"They have the best starting rotation in baseball,'' says Jim Fregosi, special assistant to Atlanta Braves GM Frank Wren, who just saw the Rays over the weekend. "You talk about [Matt] Garza, he's got as good of stuff as anybody in baseball. [James] Shields and [David] Price and [Wade] Davis are just coming into their own. And [Jeff] Niemann had the best year of anybody on that staff.

"Yeah, they're pretty good.''

The Rays have the stats to prove it, too. The starting rotation is 14-3 with a 2.64 ERA, averaging nearly 6 2/3 innings a start. The next-lowest ERA in the league belongs to Seattle with a 3.23 ERA, but they have produced just six victories.

Oh yeah, and they're young too, with an average age of just 26.19 -- second-lowest in the major leagues behind Detroit.

Now, if the Rays can just get folks to watch them. They are averaging 23,065 fans a game -- ninth-lowest in baseball.

"I'd like to see that we're getting to the point where they don't come to see the opposition,'' Rays manager Joe Maddon says. "They come out to see us.

"That's the part I think is missing. You always talk about who we're playing, and we get a good crowd for Boston, we get a good crowd for New York, whatever, that's wonderful.

"But at some point, come see the Rays."

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