ANGELS NOTEBOOK: ESCOBAR NAILING IT DOWN.

Byline: Doug Padilla Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - File this one under one of those freak occurrences that probably will not come to pass.

After a makeshift manicure, Kelvim Escobar now says his cracked fingernail will not cause him to miss his next scheduled start, although the Angels still will take a cautious approach. Escobar, who suffered the painful cracked fingernail in his season-opening start Friday, suddenly is feeling no pain.

He had much of the affected nail filed down and the natural nail growth that has occurred over the weekend has helped to subside pain in the area that was bleeding by the third inning of his outing against the New York Yankees.

"I was kind of like, `Wow, I don't want to miss the next game,"' Escobar said. "I was already frustrated because I had a tough year last year (with injuries). Everything I went through into spring training and to build up (stamina) and then to pitch in the first game and break a nail. I was like `No way.' Thank God that I feel fine right now."

The Angels won't feel good, though, until Escobar takes the mound against the Texas Rangers. Manager Mike Scioscia was only going to use long reliever Hector Carrasco in case of an emergency Monday. Carrasco would start Wednesday if Escobar has a setback.

"We're going to be comfortable or we're not going pitch him," Scioscia said. "Then obviously there's an extra day (Thursday's off day) on the back side too."

Escobar blamed the problem on not cutting his fingernails to the proper length before Friday's start. He said that while he throws five different pitches, a longer fingernail can cause problems on his two-seam fastball and split-finger pitch.

Escobar played catch for a second consecutive day Monday before finally determining he was well enough to pitch. He will not have a typical bullpen session between starts.

--Heavy rotation: J.C. Romero had been used in three of the Angels' first six games and that's just the type of heavy rotation he enjoys. In 2002, with the Minnesota Twins, he worked a career-high 81 games but has not worked less than 68in a season since.

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