Orange County Register

ANAHEIM

After blowing a three-run lead Saturday night, the Angels relievers huddled in the clubhouse conference room with pitching coach Mike Butcher and bullpen coach Orlando Mercado for a long time before Sunday’s game.

The Angels’ bullpen has the highest ERA in the majors (5.86 even after Sunday) with 12 losses. Only the Washington Nationals’ bullpen has lost more games.

“Butch feels that there are individual issues with every pitcher – it’s not one blanket thing – which is usually the case,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “But there are some resounding themes we’re seeing from guys that could be leading to their struggles.”

Those “themes,” Scioscia said, center on poor command, leading to too many hitters’ counts, walks and poor “first-batter efficiency.”

“We’re behind way too many hitters, for sure,” he said.

“There are some guys that are just out of sync and can’t repeat a pitch. Some guys are trying to be too fine. Some have issues with pitch selection and are not bringing in their secondary pitches. … There are things with each pitcher that, when you addit up and put it all together, you can see why we’ve been searching to find the formula for quite some time now.”

Injuries and poor performance have forced Scioscia to shuffle roles in the bullpen throughout the first two months of the season. But he defended closer Brian Fuentes, tied for the A.L. lead with 13 saves despite his third blown save Saturday.

“Our problem has not been the closer,” Scioscia said. “It’s been setting it up to get into the closer’s hands and that’s something we’d really like to see.”

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