ANGELS NOTEBOOK: MOSELEY GETS SHOT TO FILL OUT ROTATION.

Byline: DOUG PADILLA 

Staff Writer

OAKLAND -- The Angels' void in the rotation will appear again tonight and return every five games unless somebody stabilizes it.

It's been a long time since the Angels had all five rotation spots firing, and until recently only three spots were dependable. Dustin Moseley will get another chance to see if he can help solidify the starting corps.

"It's going to be tough to get to 115, 120 (pitches), but if he can maintain his stuff he's going to have enough pitches to pitch deep into a game," manager Mike Scioscia said. "Hopefully, he'll be more pitch-efficient to where he'll get through at least the sixth inning or so. I don't think there will be a hard pitch count, but we'll look on it until he shows his stamina is where it needs to be."

Moseley, who pitches tonight against the Oakland Athletics, had two successful starts in April, but his most recent outing was less than impressive.

With a 12-1 lead after three innings against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday -- and at home no less -- Moseley couldn't make it through five innings to get the victory. Manager Mike Scioscia pulled the plug on Moseley after 42/3 innings.

Solid in the early going this season, Moseley also had a successful bullpen stint. It was the first timeMoseley spent a significant stretch as a reliever.

On June 2, Moseley had a 1.45ERA. Since then it has been rising with the price of gasoline. In 132/3 innings in May, Moseley posted a 1.98 ERA. In 13 innings in June, he had a 4.15 ERA.

Moseley insisted he was feeling fine and didn't feel out of sorts with his mechanics. Then he and pitching coach Mike Butcher checked to see if tipping pitches was a problem.

"I saw some things on video, but you always wonder if they're picking up on it because I was only coming in for an inning," Moseley said. "If I was starting they could really pick up on it."

He will clean up those subtleties and then work on keeping his pitches down.

"I had stayed down in the zone for a while there," Moseley said. "After spring training, I had two starts and then went to the bullpen and had a rhythm. I'm a big rhythm guy. Then I lost that and was leaving balls elevated a little bit."

Little change: Injuries and a young bench have Scioscia relying heavily on a set lineup that has only slight variations. To get veterans such as Garret Anderson and Vladimir Guerrero a breather, Reggie Willits will rotate from left field to right field to designated hitter.

Willits played in right Thursday while Guerrero was DH.

"There's other guys your concerned about, not just the outfielders, but they're still holding up well," Scioscia said. "We'll monitor it. I think everybody in the league at this point in the season is going to show some fraying here or there, but our guys are holding up well."

Santana needs turnaround: Ervin Santana has less than a month to turn his game around at Triple-A Salt Lake if he wants to be eligible for the playoffs. Teams have to file a snapshot of their roster to the league by Sept. 1, and only those players will be eligible to play in the postseason. Injuries are an exception.

Santana has not made a case for himself in three Triple-A starts with a 6.05 ERA in 191/3 innings.

[e-mail]

[phone], Ext. 2731