ANGELS NOTEBOOK: DISSENSION? NO WAY, JOSE.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

TORONTO - About a week ago, Angels closer Troy Percival was asked how outspoken outfielder Jose Guillen was fitting in with his new team.

``No problems,'' Percival said. ``Pretty good clubhouse so far.''

That changed in a hurry Monday night when Guillen chastised pitchers for not sticking up for him after he'd been hit an American League-high six times in the Angels' first 45 games. His profanity-laced tirade, in which he said he was getting ``no help from anybody,'' thrust the Angels clubhouse into its first controversy this season.

General manager Bill Stoneman said Tuesday the issue will be quashed internally, and quickly.

``We'll get through this,'' Stoneman said. ``We'll get over this. It's something we're going to handle internally, and I'll leave it at that.''

Guillen has clashed with managers at several of his stops during a seven-team career, helping him earn a reputation as a malcontent. This was different, however, in that he directly called out teammates.

On Tuesday, the Angels were off, giving them a much-needed day to forget Monday's gut-wrenching 6-5, 10-inning loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. Guillen surely will be confronted today by members of the pitching staff, but Stoneman said he's confident manager Mike Scioscia's crisis management abilities will clean up any residue from the Guillen event.

Guillen has said on several occasions he has ample respect for Scioscia, who generally keeps any club discord behind closed doors. Guillen's tirade changed that.

``Mike handles the club about as good as anybody I've ever seen,'' Stoneman said. ``He's going to handle it and it's not going to be handled any other way but within the club. Mike's good at that. Players respect him for that. You don't like him having to handle a lot of situations like this, but he will.''

Whether pitchers can forgive Guillen is another matter. While wondering aloud whether pitchers realize how often he and slugger Vladimir Guerrero have been hit by pitches, he might have forgotten that on May 8 Bartolo Colon drilled Tampa Bay's Tino Martinez in the back on the first pitch an inning after Guerrero was plunked by Paul Abbott.

--No holiday: The Angels left Southern California immediately after the game Sunday afternoon to play here Monday. The rest of the AL was off, but the Blue Jays requested they have a game on Victoria Day, a national holiday.

So after enduring a fog delay, a re-route to Detroit and a burger- munching session on the runway there during an unplanned four-hour layover, they got to Toronto at 8:30 a.m. and played the Blue Jays 10 hours later.

Was it worth it for the home club? The Jays drew a whopping 15,301 - 5,000 below their average.

Gabe Lacques, [phone]

gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com

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- Gabe Lacques