It’s Hit or Be Hit in Angel Loss

Two lengthy streaks -- one lasting six games, one lasting almost six years -- came to a crashing halt Thursday, when too many of Angel right-hander Bartolo Colon’s pitches collided with Baltimore bats and one Oriole pitch collided with the elusive Garret Anderson.

Colon, one of baseball’s most effective starters the last month, had his six-game winning streak snapped, giving up six runs and eight hits and walking a season-high six in 5 1/3 innings of a 6-1 loss to the Orioles before 41,467 in Angel Stadium.

Anderson’s string of 890 games and 3,807 plate appearances without getting hit by a pitch was snapped when a Todd Williams slider caught him on the back foot in the eighth inning, the first time the Angel center fielder had been plunked since former New York Yankee Hideki Irabu hit him Aug. 25, 1998.

“He knew what to do,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of Anderson. “He went right to first base.”

That was a location the Angels were not too familiar with Thursday, as they managed only six hits, one of them Jose Guillen’s fourth-inning home run, off Baltimore starter Rodrigo Lopez and relievers Williams and Buddy Groom.

The Angels, who remained 1 1/2 games behind Oakland in the American League West standings but fell a game behind Boston in the wild-card race, put the leadoff man on base in only the ninth inning, when Darin Erstad doubled and was stranded. They went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

The Angels are tied with the Orioles for the major leagues’ best batting average (.283) but rank eighth in the AL with 575 runs, an average of five a game.

“Is there more run production in that room?” Scioscia said, pointing to the clubhouse. “Yes. But are the statistics that skewed? No. You do scratch your head sometimes. Are we stealing the bases we should? Are we making productive outs? Are we hitting with runners in scoring position?

“We’ve been a little soft in some areas, but the bottom line is we’ve scored enough to support the pitching staff and to support a championship-caliber club. The offense is not the reason why we haven’t run away with the division.”

Asked if he was perplexed by the Angels’ batting average-to-runs ratio, Erstad said, “I can’t answer that.... I don’t know how to answer that.

“You just want to put guys on base and take your chances, but we haven’t gotten it done as many times as we would have liked to.”

A lackluster offense Thursday, combined with Colon’s uninspiring start, added up to a rather dreary defeat for the Angels, who lost two of three to the Orioles.

“Any time you don’t hit,” Scioscia said, “you’re going to look flat.”

An early deficit doesn’t help, either. Colon, who threw six innings or more in his previous six starts and had a 2.54 earned-run average during that streak, failed to get past the sixth Thursday, in large part because he had so much trouble completing the first, an energy-sapping inning in which he gave up two runs and four hits and threw 30 pitches.

Melvin Mora drilled a two-out, solo home run to left-center, Miguel Tejada and Jay Gibbons hit back-to-back doubles for a second run, and Karim Garcia walked before Colon struck out Larry Bigbie to end the inning.

“That first inning took a lot out of me,” Colon (11-9) said through an interpreter. So did Mora’s home run, his 21st of the season, which came on a Colon changeup, a pitch he has been using effectively against right-handed hitters.

“I got a little tentative when Mora hit a home run,” Colon said. “I didn’t want to make a mistake with another changeup. That pitch has been working for me lately.”

Two walks aided an Oriole rally in the fourth, when David Newhan’s run-scoring infield single gave Baltimore a 3-0 lead. Guillen’s 22nd homer pulled the Angels to within 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth, but the Orioles knocked out Colon during a three-run sixth.

Bigbie walked, and Jerry Hairston and Rob Machado singled, with Bigbie scoring on Machado’s hit to make it 4-1. Brian Roberts’ sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third, and Scioscia pulled Colon for Brendan Donnelly.

It appeared the Angels might avoid further damage when Newhan grounded to first, the runners holding, but Mora looped a two-run single to right-center field to give the Orioles a commanding 6-1 lead.