Angels Fall in Clean Sweep

Every time Angel pitcher Ervin Santana takes the mound, the 22-year-old seems to be competing in his own version of the X Games, minus the bungee jumping, skateboarding and sky surfing.

The enigmatic rookie was roughed up for five runs and six hits in three innings of Sunday’s 7-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners, whose four-game series sweep sent the Angels staggering into the All-Star break with their longest losing streak of the season and trimmed their American League West lead over Texas to five games.

Five days ago, the Angels beat 2004 AL Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana and Minnesota for their 15th win in 19 games, extending their division lead to 8 1/2 games and giving many the impression they would run away with the West.

Then the Mariners, a last-place team that ranks last in the league in batting average and runs and trailed the Angels by 16 1/2 games when they arrived in Angel Stadium, outscored the Angels, 33-13, in a four-game sweep that fueled hope in Texas, Oakland and, yes, maybe even Seattle, that the Angels can be caught.

“We got taken behind the woodshed, plain and simple,” first baseman Darin Erstad said. “We didn’t play well, and they played fantastic.... Seattle obviously hasn’t played up to its potential all season, but here, they played the way everyone thought they would.”

If the Mariners are a mystery, then Santana is Agatha Christie.

Eight games into his major league career, Santana, the reed-thin right-hander with the explosive fastball, has wavered between phenomenal and frightful, looking like a rookie-of-the-year candidate one start and a double-A rotation candidate the next.

How’s this for extremes: In wins over the Chicago White Sox, Dodgers and Minnesota and a no-decision against Washington, Santana has given up three earned runs in 27 innings for a 1.00 earned-run average. In losses to Cleveland, Florida, Texas and the Mariners, Santana has given up 25 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings for a 16.46 ERA.

Will the real Ervin Santana please stand up?

“You’re going to have growing pains with any young pitcher, and you’re going to be fooled both ways,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of Santana, who was called up from double-A Arkansas to replace the injured Kelvim Escobar in May.

“At times, he looks like he takes a huge step forward, at times he looks like he takes two steps backward. It’s the sign of a guy trying to get his feet on the ground in the big leagues.”

That ground is getting shakier by the week. Though Scioscia gave no indication that he would seek to replace Santana after the break, he intimated that there is a limit to the Angels’ patience.

“Inconsistency is part of the package, but as long as he’s moving forward, pitching like he has in his good games, we’ll continue to have confidence in him,” Scioscia said. “If he struggles, if he’s hurting our ability to reach our goals, we’d look to make a move.”

The Angels staked Santana to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Santana gave up singles to Ichiro Suzuki and Randy Winn and Raul Ibanez’s score-tying, two-run double in the third.

Juan Rivera’s run-scoring fielder’s choice gave the Angels a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third, but doubles by Willie Bloomquist and Jose Lopez to open the fourth and Miguel Olivo’s two-run home run pushed Seattle ahead, 5-3, and knocked Santana out. Richie Sexson’s two-run homer against Kevin Gregg in the fourth made it 7-3.

It could have been worse. With two out in the first, Santana walked the bases loaded, going to full counts on four of six batters in a 34-pitch inning that ended with a called third strike that looked to be well below Jeremy Reed’s knees.

Vladimir Guerrero’s 16th home run, a solo shot against starter and winner Gil Meche (9-6) in the sixth, pulled the Angels to within 7-4, and the Angels loaded the bases against Julio Mateo and Ron Villone with two out in the seventh.

But Guerrero couldn’t check his swing on Jeff Nelson’s slider in the dirt and struck out. The Angels went quietly in the eighth and ninth and dispersed to various locations, with three days to get the sour taste of the sweep out of their mouths.

“I don’t like days off at all, and three days off is way too much,” Erstad said, “but if ever you could say there was a good time for a break, this would be it.”