Mets’ Trachsel Finds Angels’ Soft Spot

Steve Trachsel grew up 10 minutes from Anaheim Stadium with a Rod Carew T-shirt on his back and a Nolan Ryan poster on his bedroom wall.

Long before his days as Fullerton Troy High’s star pitcher -- and even after Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman told the then-free agent’s representative no thanks to a proposed deal before the 2000 season -- he envisioned himself as an Angel.

Trachsel might never fulfill his childhood dream, but at least now the veteran right-hander knows what it feels like to experience exhilaration at Edison Field. The New York Met pitcher came within a David Eckstein bloop single of pitching a no-hitter Sunday when he shut out the Angels in an 8-0 interleague victory.

Trachsel walked four but benefited from two double plays while recording his second career one-hitter. The Angels suffered their second shutout loss in less than a week.

“I wasn’t really disappointed at all,” Trachsel said of failing to record the no-hitter in front of a small group of friends and family among the sellout crowd of 43,721. “It just shows you how hard it is to do.”

Eckstein broke up the no-hitter with two out in the sixth inning when he muscled a curveball over the head of second baseman Roberto Alomar and into shallow right field.

“It was kind of an emergency hack, to tell you the truth,” Eckstein said. “I was fortunate enough to get a hit.”

Eckstein moved to third when his hit eluded right fielder Roger Cedeno but was stranded when Jeff DaVanon popped out to end the inning. The Angels (34-32) managed only one baserunner the rest of the game and Trachsel became the latest soft-tossing pitcher to thwart a usually potent lineup that had 16 hits and 13 runs only one night earlier.

“You’ve got a guy that relies on location and mixing things up,” Eckstein said. “In the past, those are the guys that have been able to do well against us.”

Said Brad Fullmer: “I saw quite a few pitches in my three at-bats, and I didn’t get anything good to hit. He hit all his spots and when he missed, he missed off the plate.”

Still, several Angels insisted that Trachsel was not as dominant as his pitching line indicated. Catcher Bengie Molina, who was nearly hit by an apparent retaliation pitch in the eighth, said he had seen better performances from opposing pitchers this season. Manager Mike Scioscia said Trachsel often pitched behind in the count and considered his 49-to-70 ball-strike ratio unimpressive.

“I think there are a lot of things you point to and you kind of look up and you have one hit and you’re scratching your head,” Scioscia said.

Angel starter Jarrod Washburn, who had recorded eight consecutive quality starts before Sunday, figured to be the guy receiving congratulatory handshakes after the game but instead gave up a season-high seven runs in 5 1/3 innings, his shortest outing of the season. Washburn (6-7) has lost two consecutive starts for the first time this season.

“I don’t think I threw as bad as the numbers say,” said Washburn, who struck out seven and walked three. “I wouldn’t say it was my worst start of the year.”

Washburn hurt his cause in the second when he walked two batters and allowed a single before facing rookie shortstop Jose Reyes. Reyes clung to life during a 10-pitch at-bat, fouling off several pitches before sending a fastball into the left-field seats for a grand slam, his first career home run.

Washburn later gave up two homers to Jeromy Burnitz to put the Angels in a 7-0 hole.

Trachsel (5-4) appeared an unlikely candidate to shut down the Angels. He had not given up fewer than four hits in any of his previous 13 starts this season, posting a 5.38 earned-run average.

In his only previous start at Edison Field, as a member of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2000, Trachsel had given up five runs in seven innings. Yet the stadium remains a sacred place for the 32-year-old pitcher.

“I pretty much grew up in this ballpark since third grade,” he said.

Only now his fondest memories will be his most recent ones.