Bobbles, Burba Too Much

CLEVELAND â€”  It hasn’t been obvious, like the torrent of baseballs that have been flying over walls during a month in which the Angels set a franchise record with 49 home runs. It has been more insidious, like a glacier that slowly inches its way down a valley.

The Angels were among the American League’s top three defensive teams for most of April, but for the past month they have been gradually sliding down the league’s fielding-percentage charts, a descent that pushed their ranking to 13th among 14 teams Tuesday.

Victories have masked some of the Angels’ sloppy play--they won two previous games in which they committed three errors this season--but their miscues were glaring Tuesday night because two of the three were very costly in a 6-1 loss to the Indians before 42,910 at Jacobs Field.

Shortstop Benji Gil, who will soon be displaced by Tampa Bay castoff Kevin Stocker after the veteran shortstop signed with the Angels Tuesday, opened the door for a three-run rally with a fielding error in the second inning, and third baseman Troy Glaus’ wild throw on a potential double play allowed two of the three runs in the inning to score.

The three unearned runs provided Angel killer Dave Burba plenty of support, and the Indian right-hander gave up one run on six hits in seven innings to gain the victory over left-hander Scott Schoeneweis and improve his career record against the Angels to 5-0 with a 1.15 earned-run average.

“It’s something we’ve paid attention to and something we need to tighten up, and I think Stocker will help there,� Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said of the defense, which had a .977 fielding percentage going into the game.

“You’re going to make errors, but you can’t make them like we’ve been making them the past few weeks. These guys are good defensive players. We’ll clean that up.�

David Justice started the Indians’ second-inning rally with a one-out single, and Alex Ramirez followed with a sharp grounder to the hole that Gil failed to backhand for an error, putting runners at first and second.

Richie Sexson then chopped a grounder to third, where Glaus had to back up to get the right hop. He whipped a throw to second, but the ball sailed past Keith Luuloa and into foul territory in right field, allowing two runs to score and Sexson to take third. Sandy Alomar’s single made it 3-0.

It was the team-high 13th error for Glaus, who is considered one of the best defensive third basemen in the league, and he was still mad at himself afterward.

“If we didn’t think we should make every play, we wouldn’t be out there,� Glaus said. “It was an error I shouldn’t have made, like all of them.�

After the second inning, Glaus returned to the Angel dugout and wound up to heave his glove into a wall before stopping at the last second.

“He takes so much pride in his defense, and that’s why he’s such a terrific player,� Scioscia said. “He has that passion for the game, a burning desire to succeed, and he will. But you have to be careful that his emotion doesn’t translate to frustration.

“He has very high expectations, and as he gets more experience, he’ll understand there’s no perfect player. You’re going to make errors, and some will contribute to losses. It’s how you turn the page that’s important.�

The book on Burba is that he’s a decent major league pitcher, a split-finger fastball specialist with a career 84-65 record in 10 big league seasons, but to the Angels, he might as well be Pedro Martinez.

Burba struck out five and walked one Tuesday night, and the only run the Angels scored against him came on Garret Anderson’s single and Bengie Molina’s RBI triple in the fourth.

“He didn’t even have his good splitter working tonight. But when you mix pitches and have great command like him, you’re going to be effective,� Angel left fielder Darin Erstad said. “We haven’t done much against him yet.�