Angels

Angels General Manager Jerry Dipoto said his decision to fire hitting coach Mickey Hatcher and replace him with Jim Eppard could be "a spark. " Something, perhaps, like those fireworks that erupted Wednesday beyond Angel Stadium's center-field wall, where Albert Pujols deposited his second home run as an Angel in a 7-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Dipoto said he thought "long and hard" before deciding a hitting coach switch had...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee filed suit Wednesday against the University of California Board of Regents, demanding the release of police officers' names removed from a critical report on the controversial pepper spraying of UC Davis students. The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, contends that when university officials agreed in a court settlement last month to redact all but two names, they "failed to represent the interests of the press and public," leaving the newspapers with "no choice but to bring this petition to protect the public's right of access to this important information.

SAN DIEGO — This is baseball in another dimension. It is the Mike Trout dimension. It is fast, too fast for the other men on the field. Trout put major league outfielders on notice Friday, in the Angels' 7-2 victory over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Play your best, and it will be a challenge to contain him. Play at less than your best, and an extra base will be lost, or two. "I don't believe in singles," Trout said. "I'm just trying to be aggressive and make some things happen.

SEATTLE -- It was one at-bat in a season filled with 126 of them through Wednesday, but it spoke volumes for the strides Mark Trumbo has made in plate discipline. With two on in the seventh inning at Texas on May 13, Rangers reliever Mark Lowe threw a 1-and-2 pitch an inch or two off the plate. Trumbo took it for ball two and eventually drew a walk to load the bases, extending a rally in which the Angels scored three runs to trim Texas' lead to 10-5. Howie Kendrick grounded out to end the inning, and the Rangers won, 13-6, but had Kendrick hit a grand slam, Trumbo's walk would have set it up. Had it been 2011, the inning probably would have ended with a Trumbo strikeout or weakly hit ball.

Reporting from Phoenix — Adam Kennedy turned 36 in January. He reached the pinnacle of his profession long ago, winning a World Series with the Angels in 2002 and securing his place in baseball folklore as a postseason hero. He is with his sixth team, heading into his 14th major league season. "There's a point in time, after traveling cross-country for so long, where it is a little more of a job than a pleasure," Kennedy said. But Kennedy said his inner child was awakened this winter when he signed with the Dodgers.

Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler won't be broadcasting Angels games anymore. Physioc and Hudler have been told jointly by FS West and the Angels that they will not be part of the Angels' on-air team next season. A statement by Fox and the Angels said that Rory Markas and Mark Gubicza will be the television voices for the team on FS West and KCOP next season, and Terry Smith and Jose Mota will do the radio on KLAA AM 830. Physioc, 54, who has called baseball for 25 years for the San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds and ESPN, said the news was "a total shock.

OAKLAND — Mickey Hatcher knows he has plenty of critics; they came out in full force on Internet message boards and radio call-in shows every time the Angels went into a prolonged offensive slump. What he didn't know until he was fired as Angels hitting coach last week was just how many friends he gained in 12-plus years on Manager Mike Scioscia's staff. "I'm in awe of all the people who have called — I've gotten thousands of calls from people in and out of the game, wishing me the best," Hatcher said by phone Tuesday during a round of golf at Coyote Hills in Fullerton.

TEMPE, Ariz. — This was not the career trajectory or the route into Tempe Diablo Stadium that Brandon Wood and the Angels had in mind a few years ago. A first-round pick in 2003, rated by Baseball America as the game's third-best prospect in 2006, Wood was handed the Angels' third base job coming out of spring training in 2010 and fumbled it away amid a flurry of strikeouts, popups and weak grounders. Wood was released last April, claimed by Pittsburgh and released after hitting .220 in 99 games for the Pirates.

At just 20 years old, Angels star rookie Mike Trout isn't that far removed from his childhood. The outfielder was especially close to it Saturday when he got to meet his boyhood idol, Derek Jeter . "I was a big Jeter fan growing up," Trout said Sunday before the Angels' 6-5 loss to the New York Yankees. Both hail from New Jersey and Trout grew up playing shortstop, as Jeter does for the Yankees. So when Trout doubled to left field in the sixth inning Saturday, he was met with a nice surprise when Jeter walked over to second base, slapped him on his rear and started chatting him up. Trout said Jeter said hello, asked how old Trout was, and Trout then mentioned he was from New Jersey, which Jeter was glad to hear.

The Angels put All-Star right fielder Torii Hunter on baseball's restricted list Monday after his 17-year-old son's arrest in Prosper, Texas, on suspicion of felony sexual assault of a child. Darius McClinton-Hunter , of McKinney, Texas, was arrested along with four high school classmates after a monthlong investigation, according to Prosper police. McClinton-Hunter and Garrick White , also 17, were arrested as adults, police said, along with three juveniles. No record of charges against McClinton-Hunter could be found on the police website.

The Los Angeles City Council approved a long-awaited federal financing agreement that will help ensure a vital transportation corridor doesn't become a drain on the finances of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The vote — 13 to 0 in favor, with two council members absent — allows the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority to accept $83.7 million from the Federal Rail Administration to help fund operations of the Alameda Corridor, a 20-mile freight rail expressway linking the ports to transcontinental rail lines.

The Rev. Hamel Hartford Brookins, an influential bishop and former pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles who became a political power broker, civil rights leader and mentor to former Mayor Tom Bradley, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and many others, has died. He was 86. The son of Mississippi sharecroppers, Brookins rose to prominence in the 1960s and '70s as an articulate, self-assured champion of black political empowerment. He died Tuesday at a Los Angeles retirement center where he had been receiving hospice care, a church spokesman said.

The Kings were five points out of a playoff spot and stood a wobbly 11th in the Western Conference on Dec. 22, the day Darryl Sutter made his debut as their coach. The team he took over was flailing. General Manager Dean Lombardi thought he had acquired the final pieces for a contender six months earlier when he traded for center Mike Richards and signed free-agent winger Simon Gagne, but the offense was sputtering. Coach Terry Murray's defense-oriented foundation had become the team's ceiling, leaving no room for skill or creativity.

OAKLAND—Right fielder Torii Hunter, on the restricted list since May 14 while he deals with the arrest of his 17-year-old son, Darius McClinton-Hunter, on a sexual assault charge in Texas, will likely rejoin the Angels at the beginning of next week’s homestand, Manager Mike Scioscia said Wednesday. Scioscia said Hunter, who has now missed 10 games, has been throwing, running and hitting but will probably need to work out for a day or two in Anaheim before returning to the lineup.

OAKLAND — Mike Scioscia won't declare that Ernesto Frieri is his new closer — he'd still like the option of using veteran left-hander Scott Downs at the end of games — but the Angels manager's actions and Frieri's performance suggest the 26-year-old right-hander has assumed that key role. Frieri struck out three of four batters in the 11th inning Wednesday for his first big league save, nailing down the Angels' 3-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics that featured Alberto Callaspo's clutch two-out, two-run double in the top of the inning.

OAKLAND - For the 11th time since 2010, Angels ace Jered Weaver threw at least seven innings and allowed one earned run or less, only to receive a loss or no-decision. Easing the sting for the right-hander Wednesday was Alberto Callaspo's two-out, two-run double to left field in the top of the 11th, a clutch hit that pushed the Angels to a 3-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics. Kendrys Morales drew a one-out walk off A's reliever Jordan Norberto in the 11th, and pinch-runner Peter Bourjos took third on Howie Kendrick's two-out single to center field.

John Lindsey spent 16 years in the minor leagues, or 1,571 games, before getting called up by the Dodgers last week. Like a few other long-time minor league players who are getting their first shot at the big leagues this year, Lindsey is a beneficiary of a rule that allows major league rosters to expand from 25 players to 40 in September. Often, a team in the hunt for the playoffs will grab an extra catcher or another arm for the bullpen. But if the team is out of it, September is used to give a prized prospect a glimpse of the major leagues, or to reward a player who has had a solid minor league season.

Reporting from Detroit — Torii Hunter already had advised his agent to start preparing his appeal for a possible suspension after the Angels right fielder's tantrum Friday night at Comerica Park. "I'm going to fight it," Hunter told reporters in the clubhouse following his eighth-inning ejection, which preceded an outburst in which his batting helmet brushed against umpire Ron Kulpa 's face and Hunter flung a bag of balls onto the field. There wasn't much fight in Hunter a day later.

OAKLAND — Several big league veterans, including Torii Hunter , were convinced Howie Kendrick would win a batting title some day after the Angels second baseman hit .285 as a rookie in 2006, .322 in 2007 and .306 in 2008. Entering Tuesday, the only category in which Kendrick ranked among American League leaders was strikeouts — he was tied for ninth with 39, including five three-whiff games, in 161 plate appearances. That Kendrick went five for 38 in 11 games through Monday, a .132 clip that dropped his average from .298 on May 9 to .257, is disturbing enough.

OAKLAND — Right fielder Torii Hunter , on the restricted list since May 14 while he deals with the arrest of his 17-year-old son, will probably rejoin the team early next week, Manager Mike Scioscia said. Hunter has been in Texas, where Darius McClinton-Hunter was arrested on a sexual assault charge. Though the Angels have not been required to pay Hunter during his 10-day absence, he is receiving his full salary, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly about it. If Hunter returns for Monday night's game against the New York Yankees in Angel Stadium, he will have been away for two weeks.