By Bill Plunkett, The Orange County Register –
MINNEAPOLIS — In their dreams, the Angels might have thought they put together an offense that could lead the majors in some categories this season.
In their nightmares, they never thought that category would be the most times shut out.
(PHOTO: Minnesota Twins shortstop Brian Dozier fields the ball to throw out the Los Angeles Angels’ Alberto Callaspo for the first out of the sixth inning at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. The Twins won, 5-0.)
The Twins’ pitching staff has the highest ERA in the majors, had held opposing teams to fewer than four runs just three times in their first 28 games and hadn’t come close to pitching a shutout — until Triple-A call-up Scott Diamond and two relievers combined on a four-hitter in a 5-0 victory over the Angels on Tuesday night.
The shutout was the third time in the past six games the Angels’ offense has been blanked, the fourth time in their past 10 games and the seventh time in 31 games this season. That is the most in the majors.
“It is mind-boggling … with the lineup and the talent we have, you wouldn’t think it would happen,” Angels outfielder Torii Hunter said after going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. “I would have told you (before the season started) that we’d have a good offensive year.
“It’s a six-week funk we’re going through. I really can’t wait to get out of it. You know how they say, ‘Coming to a theater near you?’ Yeah – that’s us.”
So far, the Angels have looked a lot better in the preview trailers than they have since the curtain lifted with their star attraction the biggest disappointment. With another hitless night, Albert Pujols is now 1 for 10 since hitting his first home run of the season on Sunday and batting .190 for the season.
Rangers MVP candidate Josh Hamilton had four home runs and eight RBIs on Tuesday – Pujols has one home run and nine RBI in 30 games.
“You can say you want to do things but until you do them it doesn’t mean anything,” Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick said of the preseason expectations of the Angels’ offense. “It sucks. I’m not going to tell you it’s good. But at the same time, you gotta take the good with the bad. Hopefully, there’s a lot of good coming.”
The list of pitchers who have shut out the Angels this season – David Price, Hiroki Kuroda, Bartolo Colon, Brandon Morrow, Henderson Alvarez and Derek Lowe – is not exactly exclusive company. But Diamond was not a likely candidate to join the ranks. He was 1-5 with a 5.08 ERA in seven starts for the Twins last season and the best thing he had going for him against the Angels on Tuesday was his relative anonymity. Over the past few years, Angels hitters have had a tendency to provide learners’ permits for pitchers fresh up from the minors – “at times it seems like a trend,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia admitted.
“Going over video and getting in the batter’s box against a guy are two different things,” he said.
Hunter acknowledged the trend – and the challenge of facing an unknown quantity. But he didn’t want to accept that as an explanation for the lackluster offense Tuesday against a Twins team looking down the barrel of a 100-loss season.
“I hate that and I hate saying that too,” Hunter said. “I’m scratching my head. I don’t know how that happened.
“Hey, the guy pitched a good game. Give him his props.”
Asked if the post-game cliché – “just tip your cap to him” – applied in this case, Hunter rejected it.
“No. I’m not doing that this time,” he said. “I tip my cap to Morrow, Alvarez (the two Blue Jays pitchers who shut the Angels out on back-to-back nights last week). He (Diamond) pitched a good game.”
Dan Haren could not do the same. Battling lower-back stiffness, Haren didn’t make it through four innings. He allowed an RBI double by Josh Willingham and a two-run home run by Ryan Doumit in the first inning and two more runs in the fourth before exiting after 32/3 innings.
“I just really couldn’t get loose all game and obviously wasn’t myself out there,” Haren said. “I just couldn’t really finish my pitches.
“It was a little more stiffness than usual. … A lot of times, it’ll start loosening up throughout the game. Today, it went the opposite direction.
“It was obvious in the way I was throwing, I didn’t have a whole lot on the ball. … I think it was pretty obvious – I didn’t strike anybody out, walked a couple guys, gave up a lot of hits to a team that had been really struggling.”
It was Haren’s shortest outing since Sept. 7, 2005 (22/3 innings for the A’s) and snapped a stretch of 13 consecutive quality starts by Angels pitchers – not to mention the modest three-game winning streak the team had put together.
“Unfortunate,” Haren said. “We had some momentum going and I laid an egg.”
