Angels hit another rough patch in 4-2 loss

ARLINGTON, TEXAS —  About the only ones who felt pressured by the Angels’ bats Wednesday night at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington were fans sitting down the third-base line and the Texas coaches and reserves situated in the Rangers’ dugout.

The fans scurried to dodge a bat that Howie Kendrick accidentally flung into the stands during an eighth-inning at-bat, and the dugout occupants scattered a few pitches later when a Maicer Izturis-model bat came flying their way. Both Angels hitters eventually struck out.

The sequence was emblematic of a night in which the Angels went down flailing during a 4-2 loss to the Rangers -- the latest setback for a team that appears to be losing its grip on what was once a commanding lead in the American League West.

Since sweeping Pittsburgh to move a season-best 22 games over .500 on June 24, the Angels (51-33) have dropped six of eight games and their lead over Seattle in the division has dwindled from eight games to 3 1/2 .

“There’s going to be ups and downs in a season,” said center fielder Gary Matthews Jr., who had one of the Angels’ five hits. “We’re not going to go panic or jump off a bridge or something like that. It’s the way it goes sometimes.”

An offense that was so potent for the majority of last month has gone into hibernation in recent days. The Angels have 19 hits in their last four games and are hitting only .205 during the first five games of a nine-game trip.

“Right now we’ve hit a little soft spot and some guys aren’t having some hits fall in, but there’s nothing that’s scratched the confidence this club has on the offensive side,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We just haven’t put it together for a handful of games.”

Rangers starter Jamey Wright (2-2) pretty much silenced the Angels for six solid innings, minimizing the damage during a fourth inning that the Angels opened with four consecutive singles before Casey Kotchman grounded into a run-scoring double play and Garret Anderson grounded out to Wright.

Anderson and Reggie Willits have gone a combined one for 13 in two games since returning from injury layoffs, with the hit coming on a check-swing double by Anderson on Tuesday.

Scioscia refused to pin the Angels’ offensive struggles on a lack of lineup continuity.

“Continuity doesn’t mean you’re going to do it every night,” he said. “Even for those six weeks [when things were going well] there were some nights where maybe it didn’t happen for us. We’re talking about a handful of games right here where we haven’t done the things offensively we needed to.”

Jered Weaver (6-5) held the Rangers mostly in check, limiting them to seven hits and three runs in five-plus innings. He left after surrendering three consecutive singles to open the bottom of the sixth, including Marlon Byrd’s tiebreaking single to left-center field on his 105th and final pitch. But reliever Darren Oliver retired the next three hitters to keep the Angels’ deficit at 3-2.

The Rangers scored an insurance run in the eighth on Gerald Laird’s sacrifice fly before handing the ball to closer Eric Gagne, whose entrance from the right-field bullpen closely resembled the one to which Dodgers fans had become so accustomed.

Same Guns N’ Roses song. Same scoreboard graphics featuring the goateed, bespectacled reliever, only with a Texas logo on the cap.

And this time, same results. Gagne pitched a perfect ninth for his 11th save.

“Things aren’t going as smoothly as they were the last couple of months,” Weaver said. “It’s just a matter of time before we get out of this little funk that we’re in and everything will go along smoothly.”

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