Trachsel Loses His Edge as Orioles Fall to the Angels

Angels 6, Orioles 5

ANAHEIM, Calif., May 4 -- The Baltimore Orioles did exactly what Manager Dave Trembley had hoped. His team's slumbering offense awakened in time to pound Los Angeles Angels starter Joe Saunders, the beginning of a day in which the Orioles banged out a season-high 15 hits, some of them from the lineup's coldest hitters.

But none of it was enough to overcome pitcher Steve Trachsel's latest debacle -- a three-homer, six-run, seven-hit mess -- that turned a breakout game into a 6-5 loss for the Orioles before 39,273 at Angel Stadium.

Melvin Mora homered and scored three runs, Kevin Millar had two RBI and Nick Markakis added another homer. But the Orioles couldn't climb out of the hole dug by Trachsel, who failed to go more than three innings for the third time in four starts. The loss was Baltimore's sixth in its last eight games and ensured Los Angeles a victory in the three-game series.

"The guys got me a quick two-run lead, which going against that starter is pretty nice," said Trachsel, who fell to 1-4 with a 7.42 ERA. "I just squandered it. I'm not real happy. I don't know what else to say. I just haven't been getting the job done lately. I'm not happy about that."

Brian Roberts didn't help matters when he was picked off by catcher Jeff Mathis with the Orioles trailing by a run in the ninth. Roberts was caught stealing earlier in the game.

"Mistakes were made," Trembley said.

But the course of the game was set in the first inning, when the Orioles jumped on Saunders though they missed their chance for a big inning, all before Trachsel surrendered a pair of homers that led to a four-run inning for the Angels.

"It was a laser show early," Millar said. "We had to survive it but we couldn't."

After Millar drove home the first run, Ramón Hernández drilled a ball toward the wall in left field to score Aubrey Huff. Hernández slowed as if his drive had cleared the fence, unaware that the ball bounced off the wall. Hernández high-fived first base coach John Shelby and proceeded to second in a home run trot, realizing only as he neared the bag that the ball was in play. He was thrown out sliding at second.

"I really thought when I hit it, we both thought, that it was out," Hernández said. "But the thing was that it bounced right at him so I couldn't watch the ball."

Hernández's gaffe ended the early threat and opened the door for the Angels, who put four runs up on Trachsel. After Gary Matthews Jr.'s leadoff home run, Vladimir Guerrero snapped an 0-for-15 slump with a sharp single to center and Casey Kotchman dropped a double just inside the left field foul line.

All of it set the table for Torii Hunter's three-run homer. Though Mora responded with a solo homer to lead off the third, Trachsel then surrendered a two-run shot to Robb Quinlan in the third inning.

"We didn't have good shutdown innings," Millar said. "We scored two, they scored four. We scored one, they scored two. You've got to have a shutdown inning and we didn't today, so we lost."

Trachsel walked the first batter he faced in the fourth inning and Trembley pulled him from the game.

"I'm just kind of really frustrated," said Trachsel, whose ERA jumped to 11.05 in his last four starts. "I felt great, I warmed up well."

Trembley was noncommittal after the game about whether he could make a change in the rotation.

"I don't know," he said. "The game just got over. We're going to talk to [pitching coach Rick Kranitz] and do what we've got to do."