Orange County Register

MINNEAPOLIS - The Angels have turned into a bad news factory.

The latest off the assembly line involves Vladimir Guerrero and the injured chest muscle that prompted him to leave the team and fly back to Los Angeles for an examination by Dr. Lewis Yocum. Yocum reviewed the MRI taken in Seattle on Thursday and diagnosed a torn right pectoral muscle.

Guerrero went on the disabled list Friday and is not scheduled to be re-evaluated by Yocum for a month – which seems to make a six- to eight-week recovery the most optimistic timetable. Angels manager Mike Scioscia indicated surgery is not likely to be necessary but he would not offer any estimate on how long Guerrero will be out.

“This is a big blow,” Scioscia said. “We’ll see how it progresses. There have been some optimistic windows (for his return) we’ve been getting and some that take longer.

“We’re going to take it one step at a time and let it heal first of all. It’s something that’s very unfortunate to happen at any time but especially right now when we’re trying to get our feet on the ground.”

Through the first nine games of the season, the Angels’ offense was 10th in the American League in batting average (.258),  slugging percentage (.389) and on-base percentage (.326) and 13th in runs scored (36) with Guerrero contributing just eight hits (seven singles and one home run) and three RBI in his first 32 at-bats.

Guerrero had been limited to DH by the soreness in his chest which he said hindered his throwing but didn’t bother him when swinging. But Scioscia said Yocum recommended that Guerrero stop playing entirely in order to let the torn muscle heal.

Scioscia did say he expects Guerrero to be able to return as a DH “at some point” before he is cleared to play in the field.

“Right now, it’s just not in his best interest to do that,” he said.

With Guerrero out for an extended period, Scioscia said the Angels have to “get creative” with their lineups in order to generate offense. He and his staff spent the flight from Seattle to Minnesota discussing their options. The first one they came up with involved moving Maicer Izturis into the lineup at DH and batting third with Bobby Abreu moved back a slot to cleanup.

“It’s a big blow having Vlad out of your lineup but we feel once everybody gets into doing what they’re capable of doing we’re going to have depth in our offense,” Scioscia said. “Right now, we’re going to have to reconfigure and focus on setting the table for Bobby and Torii (Hunter) and Kendry (Morales) once he gets going.

“I think we’re obviously going to have to get creative and hopefully find some continuity offensively, some chemistry. The first step is looking at those three little-ball guys (Chone Figgins, Howie Kendrick and Izturis) setting the table for the middle of our lineup.”

Scioscia turned to Izturis as the No. 3 hitter in his lineup last season as well and the Angels went 11-3 in those 14 starts. Izturis does bring a track record of success hitting with runners in scoring position (.334 in his career including .319 last season), something that has been sorely lacking in the Angels’ offense so far this season.

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