Angels are at a crossroads with reliever

Scot Shields predicted it wouldn’t take long for him to forget his part in the Angels’ 8-7 loss to Texas on Sunday.

It’s easy to understand why he was eager to obliterate all thoughts of the eighth inning, in which he gave up a single and a walk and hit a batter before he served up a fastball he hoped would be beaten into the ground but was walloped high and far and into the right-field stands by designated hitter Hank Blalock.

“I’ll look at tapes tomorrow,” Shields said, “but it will be erased from my memory tonight. About an hour, it will be gone.”

It might be worth remembering as one of Shields’ last appearances -- and almost surely the last for the immediate future -- in the setup role that he has filled so well for three seasons.

Manager Mike Scioscia, patient during Shields’ second-half struggles, said Sunday he would have to “look at a couple of things” after Shields couldn’t hold a 5-2 lead.

Scioscia wouldn’t specify if that meant moving Justin Speier into that eighth-inning “bridge” role, or whether left-hander Darren Oliver would take on a more prominent part, a consideration Oliver has earned by reducing his earned-run average from 7.98 on May 31 to 4.11 after he pitched a scoreless inning Sunday.

It’s clear only that Shields has not been consistently effective and that the Angels no longer can wait and hope for him to come around.

Whatever progress Shields might have made in his last three outings in August -- three scoreless appearances that brought his ERA for the month down to 9.00 -- was wiped out Sunday.

“We could consider a role change, we could consider letting him work a little bit off the mound. There’s a lot of things that I think we’re going to look at as we move forward here,” Scioscia said.

“His stuff, it looks good. It’s just his command is off. We just need him to find that because he’s going to be big for us.”

Blalock’s grand slam wiped out a lead the Angels had carefully constructed on Jeff Mathis’ two-run home run in the third and a three-run fifth. Starter John Lackey sweated and pushed himself through 6 2/3 innings, giving up six hits and striking out eight before leaving to a well-earned standing ovation on a night when the oppressive heat at Angel Stadium made clapping an exhausting chore.

Had Shields and his bullpen mates preserved that margin, the Angels would have extended their American League West lead over the stumbling Seattle Mariners to a formidable 7 1/2 games.

The Angels could have set themselves up for a relatively easy finish, using the final weeks of the season to choreograph their pitching rotation for the playoffs, get Gary Matthews Jr. out of his batting slump, maybe rest Mathis and generally avoid getting hurt.

In losing Sunday, they remained 6 1/2 ahead of the Mariners, still within catching distance. And the loss highlighted a flaw in a bullpen that has been so strong for so long but may be no longer.

“I can’t speak for them, I can only speak for myself,” Shields said, “and I’m not getting the job done.”

Pitching coach Mike Butcher attributed Shields’ struggles to the right-hander dragging his arm and allowing his body to fly open on his delivery. Butcher and Shields had talked about mechanical matters after Shields gave up three runs in a third of an inning at Boston on Aug. 17, and both thought they’d remedied the problem.

Clearly, that’s not the case.

“It’s almost like a hitter going through a slump,” Butcher said.

“He’s got to work himself out of this thing and get a little more of the plate early in the count and finding the release point on the breaking ball. . . .

“I don’t care who you are out there, if you’re behind in the count you’re going to get hit. Guys are going to get better swings at you. They’re going to be more aggressive in those counts. And when you’re working ahead, guys put a little bit more defensive swing on the ball.”

Shields, who leads the bullpen with 61 appearances and had a scoreless streak of 24 2/3 innings from May 25 to July 15, said his belief in himself has not been shaken.

“There’s nothing mental,” he said. “If it’s mental, it’s time for me to go home. I don’t fall into that category.”

Asked if he would be surprised to see his role change while he tries to end his difficulties, he stood up a bit straighter.

“I don’t even want to comment on that,” he said. “That’s Mike’s call.”

A difficult call for Scioscia, certainly. But one that the Angels’ manager is going to have to make very soon, if he hasn’t already.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.