DECLARATION OF FRUSTRATION SCIOSCIA HOLDS MEETING AFTER LOSS, ADMITS PLAYERS MIGHT BE PRESSING DETROIT 5, ANGELS 3.

Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - The Angels offense has become more fizzle and much less sizzle, and if not for Vladimir Guerrero on Friday, there would have been no spark at all.

Guerrero drove in two runs with a triple and a single, but it wasn't enough in a 5-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers in front of a sellout crowd of 43,580 at Angel Stadium.

The Angels are frustrated, and manager Mike Scioscia noticed as much, so he called a brief postgame meeting.

``If you could see the guys after the game, you could see they are taking it hard,'' Scioscia said. ``We know we're a good club and we're going to be in a pennant race from now until the end of the season. We just have to keep the game-to-game focus and the pitch-to-pitch focus.

``Some guys are trying too hard, and sometimes it carries over to other parts of your game.''

Scioscia declined to give specifics on the meeting, but closer Troy Percival said: ``He said we've got ups and downs and to keep the downs short and get back on top of our game. When we're playing our best, we win all the close games. That didn't happen tonight.''

It didn't happen in part because Percival gave up two runs in the ninth inning, the Tigers going ahead after the Angels tied the game in the eighth.

A throwing error by Tigers second baseman Omar Infante in the eighth allowed Robb Quinlan to score the tying run. But Percival entered the game in the ninth and immediately gave up a leadoff double to Rondell White.

One out later, White scored on a single by Craig Monroe, and the USC product went to third on a single by Brandon Inge, his fourth hit of the game. The Tigers added a second run in the inning on a sacrifice fly to right field by Nook Logan, though Inge was thrown out by Guerrero trying to go from first to second.

``I just had bad stuff,'' Percival said. ``Every pitch I threw I located fairly well, but I wasn't throwing 97, 98 (mph). I was throwing 91. Every pitch I threw was on the corner or at the knees, but they did a good job of hitting.''

The Angels, though, are not hitting. Big things were expected from a lineup that added Guerrero and Jose Guillen in the offseason, but they are the only two Angels who have shown any pop this season. Guerrero has 25 homers and Guillen 22, and no other player on the active roster has more than eight.

The Angels had their opportunities against Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman and the Tigers bullpen Friday but failed to come up with key hits. The Angels stranded eight runners in scoring position.

``Our average is fine, but our run production is disappointing,'' Scioscia said. ``We have to get back to an aggressive approach, pressuring other teams inning to inning. Right now we're waiting for guys in the middle of the lineup to hit a five-run home run, and that's not what we're about.''

``We're just in one of those stretches right now,'' said Angels starting pitcher John Lackey, who gave up three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. ``We've got too many good players for this to last too much longer.''

Joe Haakenson, [phone]

joe.haakenson(at)sgvn.com

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