Angels Shuffle Their Pitchers at Both Ends

On a day when the Angels sought to clarify their bullpen situation by naming Troy Percival as their primary closer, their starting rotation may have become muddled because of an injury.

Mark Langston was a late scratch as the starting pitcher when he reinjured his right knee Sunday while running before the 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins, the team’s 10th consecutive win at Anaheim Stadium.

Langston was examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum, received treatment and will undergo an MRI exam this morning to determine the extent of the injury.

“Considering how quickly it swelled and how sharp the pain was, we didn’t want to take any chances of torn cartilage,” Yocum said, “so that’s why we’re going to do the MRI.”

Before the game, General Manager Bill Bavasi tried to put an end to the Angels’ closer controversy, saying, “Troy [Percival] is the closer.”

Lee Smith, baseball’s all-time saves leader who hurt his knee in an offseason hunting accident, appears to be sound, but Percival has saved 11 games this season and hasn’t been scored on since September.

“I have maintained that the closer job was [Smith’s], but I’ve corrected that now,” Bavasi said. “Hindsight is 20/20, but that was a stupid approach. I put Lee Smith in a bad spot, I put [Manager Marcel Lachemann] in a bad spot, and now I’m correcting it.”

Smith, who pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning Sunday, said he thought the fans had gotten the wrong perception when he said he wanted to be the closer or move on.

“I don’t want to get in the way of what this organization wants to do, and you have to respect what Percival has done,” Smith said. “But I feel like I’ve been ready to close for about 10 days now.

“I don’t want to be in a position of hoping a teammate does bad so I can play. I want to be somewhere where I can get that 27th out and help my team win. If I can’t find a team that needs a closer, then it’s time to put a charge on the ol’ boat battery. And I can deal with that. They say the average career for a pitcher is six years, so I’ve already had three guys’ careers.”

As for the game, the Angels rolled to their 12th victory in 14 contests at home, equaling their 1982 start, the best in club history.

Shawn Boskie (3-0), who lost his spot in the rotation after failing to protect an eight-run lead April 15 in Seattle, pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up four hits and a run.

Boskie was in the dugout when Lachemann told him to go down to the bullpen and start warming up in place of Langston.

“When I got down there and started warming up, I was watching him and it didn’t look good,” Boskie said. “He couldn’t even stand on it without limping.

“I can be a stop-gap guy, but I can’t replace him.”

Lachemann is confident that won’t be necessary and won’t even say that Boskie would be Langston’s replacement if necessary.

“Mark is such a good athlete and in such great shape, I don’t see this being a very long thing,” he said.

The way things have been going for the Angels, Lachemann can be excused for his optimism. By the fifth inning Sunday, everybody in the Angel lineup except Garret Anderson had a hit. And Mark Holzemer, Mike James and Smith, who followed Boskie, combined to give up only two hits.

The Angels had 27 hits and scored 14 runs in the three-game series sweep while the Twins, who set a major league record with 175 runs in April, managed 15 hits and only four runs.

Sunday’s game began on a positive note when Randy Velarde hit his first homer as an Angel and first ever leading off.

Velarde, who sat out four games because of infections in both ears, doubled and scored in the second as the Angels battered Minnesota starter LaTroy Hawkins for three runs and six hits.

Jack Howell, starting at third base in place of slumping rookie George Arias, hit a towering homer to right in the fifth inning to put the Angels ahead, 5-0.