Donnelly Frustrated With His Role

Wednesday night was the last straw for reliever Brendan Donnelly. Nothing against his buddy, Scot Shields, but when Manager Mike Scioscia summoned Shields for a fourth consecutive day, in the eighth inning with the score tied against the Royals, the frustrations that have been simmering for Donnelly came to the surface.

“This is not a major knock on Kansas City, but they’re the worst team in baseball. If I can’t pitch against them, who can I pitch against?� said Donnelly, who had appeared in only three games in June entering Thursday.

“I’ve been part of a lot of good things here. I’ve taken the ball in every situation and done pretty well. I feel I deserve more than I’m getting. If my time is up here, don’t hold me back from helping someone else.�

That was the message Donnelly’s agent, Dominic Torres, had for Bill Stoneman in late April, when Torres phoned the Angels general manager to request a trade.

“That went nowhere,� Torres said. “They said he’s a valuable piece of the club, and they’re not interested in shopping him around.�

Donnelly is getting his innings -- he entered Thursday with a 3.42 earned-run average in 26 1/3 innings -- but many have come in lopsided games, a far cry from the late-inning responsibilities he had as the team’s primary set-up man in 2003, when he went 2-2 with a 1.58 ERA in 74 innings.

Donnelly acknowledges that Shields has been the more effective reliever the last two seasons and deserves to be closer Francisco Rodriguez’s primary set-up man.

Of Donnelly’s first 25 appearances, 10 have come with a lead or deficit of five runs or more, eight have come when the Angels trailed by three runs or fewer, and seven have come with the Angels tied or ahead by three runs or fewer.

With Shields unavailable, Donnelly did enter in the eighth inning with a 2-1 lead Thursday night and did nothing to help his cause, sandwiching a hit batter and a walk around a sacrifice bunt before being pulled for Rodriguez. The Royals scored the tying run on an error.

“He probably hasn’t had the opportunities he hoped to have, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have confidence in him,� Stoneman said, adding that “his role is a little different than what it was, but he’s a guy who can help the Angels win.�

That’s why Stoneman doesn’t want to deal Donnelly, a 34-year-old right-hander who was an integral part of the Angels’ 2002 World Series championship team when he went 1-1 with a 2.17 ERA in 46 games.

“It takes 25 players to make up a team,� Stoneman said. “Sometimes a player doesn’t have the role he’d like, but that’s subject to change. You don’t move a guy off the team because he’s not happy at the moment. He has to convince Mike he deserves more of an opportunity, and the way to do that is by performance.�

Donnelly has also been a victim of circumstance. The Angels have had a rash of blowout wins and losses recently, and Scioscia has struggled to get several relievers meaningful work.

“I know there are short-term segments of the season when guys might get frustrated, but that’s the nature of baseball,� pitching coach Bud Black said. “We haven’t lost confidence in Brendan. We feel he’s an integral part of the bullpen.�

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Bartolo Colon, who is expected to return from a two-month stint on the disabled list either Sunday or Monday, says his shoulder feels stronger now, after weeks of rehabilitation and three minor league starts, than it did coming out of spring training.

The Angels ace added that he won’t be afraid to cut loose his fastball as he was in spring training.

“I think that’s over with now,� Colon said through an interpreter. “The way my rehab went, I think I’m past that stage.� During Monday night’s start for triple-A Salt Lake, Colon said he “was holding back for the first four innings, but then I started getting loose and really let it go.�