SOME THINGS DON'T CHANGE ANGELS MAKE MOVES, BUT LOSING STREAK REMAINS DETROIT 2, ANGELS 1.

Byline: DOUG PADILLA  Staff Writer

DETROIT - Desperate times certainly called for more desperate measures than just putting a rookie at first base for the first time in his career, and so the Angels started what potentially could be a series of changes.

Howie Kendrick wearing a first-baseman's glove certainly gave the Angels a new look Tuesday, and after the game things changed even more. Jeff Mathis was optioned back to Triple-A Salt Lake to make room for Mike Napoli's first stint on a major-league roster.

Wednesday's 2-1 defeat to the Detroit Tigers, the Angels' sixth consecutive, only added to the thought that more moves are on the way. The Angels are 12-16 and are four games below .500 for the first time since the end of the 2003 season.

With general manager Bill Stoneman on the Angels' current three-city road trip, he and Mike Scioscia were behind closed doors in the manager's office for a significant amount of time before Wednesday's game.

After the meeting, Stoneman gamely answered questions on the state of the Angels, and he did little to cool speculation that changes were on the way. Stoneman was asked about Mathis' offensive struggles and he said patience was key with a young player.

But he added even more.

"Having said that, there are no guarantees," Stoneman said. "We discuss these things all the time. You mentioned one guy's name, but we go over the entire club daily. So we could be making some adjustments here.

"But if we make them it's because we think we're making the club better by doing it."

Stoneman was asked if it is too early to panic or if he would be all in favor of panic at this point to change the team's fortunes.

"You evaluate every day," he said. "I don't want to use the word panic. We don't panic when we discuss things we can do and might do. There is no mood of panic at all from anybody. You always evaluate things. If you can help your club by doing something, you do it if it's something available to you.

"I think there's always a sense of urgency. You want to win today's game. That's the mind-set. If you can do something to help you win that game and put you in better position to win the next one, then that's what you do."

One thought was that maybe Tuesday's brawl with the Oakland Athletics would help forge a sense of unity. It has helped before.

"The last time we got in a fight was the year we won the World Series, so we should be all right if that happens again," said John Lackey, the main combatant with the A's Jason Kendall on Tuesday.

That 2002 season was also the last time the Angels had a six-game losing streak, which came in early April.

There certainly was fight in Jeff Weaver (1-4) on Wednesday against the Tigers, as he pitched a strong 7 1/3 innings. But with hardly any offensive support, he was done in by a Brandon Inge home run in the sixth inning off an 0-2 pitch and a check-swing call that didn't go his way in the eighth.

Inge appeared to go around on a 3-2 pitch in the eighth but first-base umpire Ed Rapuano said it wasn't a swing. Then Inge beat out a force play at second base when Adam Kennedy's throw was late. Inge scored the winning run on a single by Alexis Gomez off reliever Scot Shields.

"It's a tough way to start a long road trip when you're trying to gain a little momentum and get something going," Weaver said. "It's going to be tough. We have tough teams ahead of us. We have to find a breakthrough game and get a little confidence for everybody. We know we have the pieces, we just have to make it work. It's been a tough week for us."

Mathis now looks like the scapegoat for what has gone wrong, but he certainly has been just a small part of the offensive struggles that look similar to last season. He was batting just .103 in 12 games and the ERA of Angels pitchers was nearly three runs higher when he was behind the plate.

"We just can't quite put it together offensively, and doing it last year is really no help to us now," Kennedy said. "It's hard to get out of something like this. There is really not one thing you can do but to keep playing and hopefully you snap out of it."

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Angels starter Jeff Weaver waits for manager Mike Scioscia to take him out in the eighth inning.

Duane Burleson/Associated Press

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ANGELS at DETROIT

- Doug Padilla