Angels Manager Mike Scioscia

Mike Scioscia is about to open his house to thousands of visitors, and millions more who will be peeking in on TV. Not his home in Thousand Oaks, where he lives with his family, but Angel Stadium, where he summers with his "other" family, baseball's Los Angeles Angels. The Big A will be the site of Tuesday's All-Star game as well as related activities in the days leading up to it, and the Angels coach, who was a proud All-Star as a player with the Dodgers, seems equally proud that his Orange County digs will be on the national stage.

The Angels lost Thursday because they couldn't see into a blinding sun and because pitcher C.J. Wilson couldn't seem to find home plate. The Chicago White Sox took advantage, using sun-caused misplays and six walks in less than four innings by under-the-weather Angels starter Wilson to earn a 6-1 victory at Angel Stadium. Wilson, battling a stomach virus he said nearly caused him to pass out in the first inning, fell behind, 1-0, in the third on a two-out walk to Paul Konerko and a run-scoring single to right field by A.J. Pierzynski.

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia remains conflicted over what to do with teenage prospect Mike Trout . On one hand, Trout is probably more valuable to the Angels than any player they could call up to take his place. But at 19 and just two years removed from high school, he needs to play every day to continue developing — something that, barring a trade or injury, he won't do at the big-league level this summer. "At the end of the trip we'll see where he is," Scioscia said Friday, eight days into the team's 10-game trip.

If Monday didn't represent rock bottom for the Angels, it's going to be a very long summer. A night after getting routed by division-leading Texas, the last-place Angels slipped deeper into the abyss by suffering their major league-leading eighth shutout - a 5-0 loss to the Oakland Athletics compounded by the troubling absence of their most uplifting player. A's starter Tyson Ross, who began the night with a 7.71 earned-run average, threw six shutout innings while retiring Albert Pujols three times and allowing just one Angel to reach third base.

Reporting from Oakland Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said Monday that expanding baseball's playoff field from eight to 10 teams would create excitement without watering down the postseason or diminishing the importance of the regular season. "I think it creates a lot of opportunity for teams that have terrific seasons, that really are playoff-caliber clubs, to get into the playoffs," he said. "It just opens up opportunity after 162 games for teams to get into the dance. "It's good for baseball, good for teams, good for organizations.

Mark Trumbo is hitting .257 with a team-leading 18 home runs, including a two-run shot to center field in the second inning of the second game of Saturday's doubleheader against Oakland. But Manager Mike Scioscia has kept the rookie first baseman in the seventh spot in the order, usually behind lighter-hitting third baseman Alberto Callaspo , who is batting .282 with three homers. That may not make sense to those who think the Angels' biggest power threat should bat in front of a player who has hit 24 homers in four big league seasons, or even higher in the lineup.

Reporting from St. Petersburg, Fla. The Angels are growing increasingly concerned over Vernon Wells' struggles at the plate. Manager Mike Scioscia and hitting coach Mickey Hatcher met privately with Wells for a couple of hours before Friday's win over the Tampa Bay Rays, but whatever they talked about had just a modest impact as Wells went one for four with a bloop single, striking out twice — though he did drive home the go-ahead...

One bright spot in Friday night's 3-2 loss to the Blue Jays was a fairly clean inning by demoted Angels closer Fernando Rodney , who gave up one hit in a scoreless ninth. Of the right-hander's 14 pitches, eight were strikes. In his previous outing, in Kansas City last Sunday, Rodney blew a save by walking three batters and allowing two runs in the Angels' 12-9, 13-inning loss to the Royals. Scioscia announced on Tuesday that Jordan Walden would be the new closer. "For the first time in a while, he looked real comfortable on the mound," Manager Mike Scioscia said of Rodney.

He has sat out three games with what the Angels had been calling muscle tightness in his left side, and now infielder Erick Aybar has undergone an MRI that revealed a slight strain, according to Manager Mike Scioscia . "Right now we're hoping it's not a [disabled-list] situation," he said of Aybar, who had the exam Wednesday morning. Scioscia said it's unlikely Aybar will be well enough to start Friday in the home opener at Angel Stadium, but he could be available to pinch-run or pinch-hit over the weekend.

In Brandon Wood the Angels trust … for now. That will change in the very near future if the struggling third baseman doesn't emerge from a season-opening slump in which he's batting .087 with four singles and 15 strikeouts in 46 at-bats. Wood was not in Friday night's lineup, but Mike Scioscia is not at the point where he will give him three or four days off to "clear his head," as the Angels' manager has done with slumping hitters. "That's an option we'll look at closely," Scioscia said of a possible extended bench stay for Wood, "but he's going to play Saturday, and we'll keep tracking him. … You can see the talent.

MINNEAPOLIS--The Angels placed reliever LaTroy Hawkins on the 15-day disabled list Monday because of a broken pinky finger on his right (throwing) hand, an injury he suffered while fielding Omar Vizquel's game-ending line drive in Sunday's 4-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. Hawkins will be sidelined from four to six weeks, according to the Angels' medical staff. To replace Hawkins, who had a 1.08 earned run average in 10 games, the Angels called up right-hander David Pauley from triple-A Salt Lake.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - B.J. Upton singled and pinch-hitter Brandon Allen followed with a two-run home run to right field with one out in the ninth inning Thursday to give the Tampa Bay Rays a dramatic 4-3 walk-off victory over the Angels. The Angels were poised to snap their three-game losing streak after Jerome Williams gave them seven strong innings, allowing two runs and five hits, striking out six and walking three, and Scott Downs threw a scoreless eighth and got the first out of the ninth.

Not getting the big hit has defined the Angels' season so far, and Sunday's 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Baltimore Orioles was more of the same. "Offensive continuity is something that we're searching for," Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said of a game that ended with pinch-runner Bobby Abreu stranded at third. After hitting an eighth-inning home run that sent the game to extra innings, Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick couldn't catch a hard grounder up the middle by Baltimore's Nick Markakis that bounced off his glove to shallow center field for a run-scoring single in the 10th.

After matching the worst start in team history with the expansion Angels of 1961, this far richer version opened its series against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday trying to end a record four lost series to open the season. "The talent in this team is real, it will come to the forefront," Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said before the game. On cue, Howie Kendrick and Jerome Williams did their part in a 6-3 victory over the Orioles that ended the Angels' losing streak at three games.

Earlier Tuesday, Angels Manager Mike Scioscia dismissed a question about the effectiveness of starting pitcher Dan Haren, who had given up 20 combined hits in his first two short starts. If he was worried about the consistent Haren, Scioscia said, his team had a lot of problems. Haren redeemed the faith Tuesday night, but other problems mounted. An inning after the starter departed with a one-run lead, relievers Kevin Jepsen and David Carpenter failed to retire five consecutive Oakland Athletics and the visitors rallied with a four-run eighth inning to beat the Angels, 5-3, at Angel Stadium.

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia confirmed Wednesday what was long suspected: Jered Weaver will make his third consecutive opening-day start when he takes the mound with the new Albert Pujols-led Angels on Friday night vs. the Kansas City Royals at Anaheim Stadium. The 29-year-old Weaver (18-8, 2.41 earned run average last season) has been an All-Star the last two years. He is scheduled to face Kansas City veteran Bruce Chen in the 7:05 p.m. game. "Weave's the guy you want out there," Scioscia said.

— In the Angels' spring training clubhouse, four lockers situated near the same corner are occupied by the bulk of perhaps Major League Baseball's finest starting pitching rotation. But the Angels' have a question mark beyond their fearsome foursome of Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana and C.J. Wilson: Who's the fifth starter? It has been a two-man race between Jerome Williams and Garrett Richards, who gave up six hits and three runs Saturday in the Angels' 3-3 exhibition tie against the Chicago Cubs at Hohokam Stadium.

Reporting from Kansas City, Mo. The season is only two days old, Angels Manager Mike Scioscia cautioned. Far too early to draw any conclusions. "You're talking about a small sample," he said Friday, moments after Kila Ka'aihue's ninth-inning home run gave the Kansas City Royals a 2-1 win over the Angels. "You're talking two games. " Maybe. But even a small sample can sometimes reveal troubling trends. And in the Angels' case, they're trends that suggest the troubles that plagued the team last summer are following them into this one. For instance: • Last season the Angels were 27th in the majors in hitting with runners in scoring position.

— In the Angels' spring training clubhouse, four lockers situated near the same corner are occupied by the bulk of perhaps Major League Baseball's finest starting pitching rotation. But the Angels' have a question mark beyond their fearsome foursome of Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana and C.J. Wilson: Who's the fifth starter? It has been a two-man race between Jerome Williams and Garrett Richards, who gave up six hits and three runs Saturday in the Angels' 3-3 exhibition tie against the Chicago Cubs at Hohokam Stadium.

For the first time in almost two years, Angels Manager Mike Scioscia on Thursday wrote Kendrys Morales' name in a major league lineup. The slugger, who has not played for the Angels since breaking his left ankle while jumping onto home plate in celebration of a walk-off home run May 29, 2010, will start at designated hitter and bat sixth against the Kansas City Royals in Tempe Diablo Stadium. "It's nice," Scioscia said. "Guys are excited. He's one of those players a lot of guys on the team rally around.