Another Slow Start for Salmon

A spring training loaded with plate appearances was supposed to prevent another slow start by Tim Salmon, and a successful Cactus League campaign (.381, six homers, 22 runs batted in) was supposed to jump-start the Angel right fielder this April, but nine games into the season, Salmon is struggling.

A career .256 hitter in April, Salmon’s average dipped to .235 with a league-leading 14 strikeouts after Friday’s one-for-five performance, which included two strikeouts and a failure to score a runner from third with one out in the third inning.

“Guys aren’t just laying fastballs in there, but when I get a pitch I can handle I foul it off,” said Salmon, who has two homers and five RBIs. “I felt so good coming out of spring training, but I have all this adrenaline during the season, and I’m trying to channel it into something positive.”

Salmon is either swinging too late on fastballs or too early on off-speed pitches. But he knows his time will come.

“I keep saying, ‘I’m a good hitter, I’m a good hitter.’ I know it’s going to come around,” said Salmon, a career .293 hitter who has averaged 30 homers and 100 RBIs for five seasons. “I just have to maintain the right attitude and approach, and I can’t give up on myself.”

Salmon isn’t the only Angel struggling in the heart of the order. Cecil Fielder, a career .239 hitter in April, went one for five with two strikeouts Friday, his average falling to .241. He has no homers and two RBIs.

“If nine games were the season I’d be in trouble, but that’s not the case,” Fielder said. “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”

Indian shortstop Omar Vizquel did a number on the Angels on Friday with his bat and glove. With two out, runners on second and third and left-hander Allen Watson on the verge of pitching out of a jam, Vizquel singled to right-center, driving in two runs for a 4-1 lead.

Vizquel also walked and scored in the seventh to give Cleveland a 5-4 lead, but his highlight of the day came in the third inning when, with a runner on third and two out, he made a diving stop of Jim Edmonds’ grounder up the middle and, from a sitting position, threw out Edmonds.

“I am through being surprised at what Omar can do,” Indian Manager Mike Hargrove said of the five-time Gold Glove award winner. “I’ve moved into the area of being awe-struck.”

Watson, who was bombed by the Indians for seven runs in three innings last Saturday, showed dramatic improvement Friday, giving up four runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings, walking one and striking out five. Reliever Rich DeLucia threw two innings of scoreless relief, and catcher Matt Walbeck threw out Vizquel and Kenny Lofton trying to steal second in the ninth inning. . . . A sunny but brisk 42-degree day with a wind-chill factor of 24 degrees hardly deterred Indian fans Friday--Jacobs Field was sold out for the 212th consecutive game, a streak that began June 12, 1995, and will not end in 1998: the Indians have sold all tickets for their 80 remaining home games. . . . Troy Glaus did it again. The Angel prospect, playing for double-A Midland, hit another homer Thursday night, giving the third baseman eight homers in his first eight games. Glaus is batting .400 with 16 RBIs and has a 1.171 slugging percentage.

TODAY

ANGELS’ JASON DICKSON (0-1, 12.46 ERA) vs. INDIANS’ CHARLES NAGY (1-0, 9.00 ERA)

Jacobs Field, Cleveland, 10 a.m. PDT

Radio--KRLA (1110), XPRS (1090)

Update--Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina, sidelined since Tuesday, did not get a chance to test his bruised left wrist Friday. Shortly after arriving at Jacobs Field, DiSarcina, suffering from flulike symptoms, was sent back to the team hotel. DiSarcina has regained his grip strength, and Manager Terry Collins said if DiSarcina is feeling better and is cleared by trainers today, he could return to the lineup Sunday. “When they say a guy is ready,” Collins said, “I like to give him one more day [of rest] before playing him.”