Angels Needn’t Get Up in Arms

CLEVELAND —  There was a what-me-worry bravado around the Angel clubhouse Monday.

Pitchers have come up lame. The offense certainly doesn’t appear ready to carry the load any time soon. Yet with those things nipping at their heels, the Angels rolled on.

Starter Kelvim Escobar goes on the disabled list at the start of this trip? Paul Byrd walks out and shuts out the Cleveland Indians on three hits through seven innings in a 3-1 victory Monday, his third consecutive victory.

Closer Francisco Rodriguez on the shelf with a sore forearm? Scot Shields steps in to throw a vicious ninth inning to send an announced 13,729 at Jacobs Field, and the Indians, home, closing out the Angels’ third win in four games on this trip.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with us being down a couple pitchers,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “They still have a job to do. They have to get outs.”

Maybe, but their efforts Monday sure helped out the big picture.

Tonight the Angels will send out 22-year-old Ervin Santana, who will make his major league debut in place of Escobar. Byrd (4-3) saved the bullpen in case first-game jitters become a worst-case scenario.

Byrd struck out five batters -- four looking -- and did not allow a runner into scoring position until the seventh inning. He walked three, but also got two double plays and had another runner caught stealing on a pitchout.

That kind of dominance came in handy, as the Angel offense served up another meager portion. Vladimir Guerrero doubled home Darin Erstad with the first run in the fourth. Garret Anderson drove in two runs, one with a roller up the third-base line in the sixth and another on a grounder that found a hole in the eighth.

But with Byrd facing Cleveland, that might have qualified as offensive overkill.

The Indians have done plenty of Byrd watching in the past. He has a 5-0 record against them, and a 1.60 earned-run average, the second lowest against Cleveland by an active starter with at least five starts. Oakland’s Barry Zito has a 0.96 ERA against the Indians.

“Cleveland is just one of those teams,” Byrd said. “I don’t know what it is about them. The New York Mets are like that for me in the National League. The only guy in the [Cleveland] lineup I don’t feel comfortable with is Grady Sizemore. I don’t know what he’s trying to do. But don’t tell him I said that.”

Byrd labored through the seventh with what he said were problems with his mechanics. After Brendan Donnelly gave up a run in the eighth, the game was turned over to Shields as the stand-in closer.

Rodriguez is said to be day-to-day with what is believed to be a strained muscle in his right forearm. It seems to be a survivable loss for now. Shields pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out two, for his third save this season.

“I teased Shields that a lot of guys who are good in the seventh and eighth can’t get it done in the ninth,” Byrd said. “He just mowed people down. It really affected him.”

The Angels might need more of that, depending on when Rodriguez, who was injured during a game against Detroit Saturday, can pitch again.

But Shields seems to be a pretty good fit in the role. He has given up three earned runs in 21 2/3 innings this season.

“I just approach it like I would if I was pitching in the seventh or eighth,” Shields said. “I just try to get outs. We have a bullpen full of setup men down there. We’re interchangeable.”

But, he added, “we need No. 57 out there if we’re going to be successful.”