Manager Mike Scioscia

Reporting from Baltimore — Manager Mike Scioscia confirmed the worst-kept secret in the Angels' clubhouse Saturday when he said right-hander Jered Weaver would start the series finale in Baltimore on just three days' rest. Scioscia wants Weaver (17-7, 2.40 ERA) to pitch three of the Angels' final 11 games and to do that he would have to make at least one start on short rest. "We put a lot of time into making evaluations and looking at options," Scioscia said. "It's a calculated risk with anything you do. Weav doesn't see it as any issue.

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.

Reporting from Tempe, Ariz. — Jason Isringhausen signed a minor league contract with the Angels, but he could have a major impact on the bullpen. Manager Mike Scioscia indicated Thursday that the veteran right-hander is a near-lock to make the club. "Jason is going to slot in with LaTroy Hawkins and Scott Downs [in a setup role]," Scioscia said. "We talk about that pyramid of guys getting to the closer [Jordan Walden]. It's a little broader right now. " A rhombus of relief, perhaps?

SAN DIEGO — There was a time this season when the Angels had too many outfielders. There was a time this season when the Angels fancied themselves World Series contenders. And then there was Sunday, when the Angels dropped back into last place in the American League West, when the second baseman forced into duty as an emergency left fielder botched the final play of the game. That the Angels lost a series to the bumbling San Diego Padres is bad enough. The Angels also lost Vernon Wells and Ryan Langerhans — probably to the disabled list — leaving them short-staffed in the formerly overloaded outfield.

Reporting from Tempe, Ariz. -- It's not a good spring when you've had half as many closed-door meetings with the manager and general manager (two) as hits (four) in 12 games. Those were Bobby Abreu's sad statistics Saturday after the veteran outfielder was summoned by Manager Mike Scioscia and General Manager Jerry Dipoto to explain comments criticizing the team to a Spanish-language publication. Abreu, 38, was quoted by the Venezuelan paper Lider en Deportes as saying he didn't put a lot of stock in Scioscia's prediction that he would get 400 plate appearances this season.

It's hard to avoid controversy when established players get hurt and the backups more than fill their shoes. Such is the case with the Angels, concerning relief pitchers Brian Fuentes (the established) and Fernando Rodney (the backup). But Manager Mike Scioscia managed that Thursday: "Right now, there's no controversy." Fans might differ after Wednesday, when Fuentes returned from the disabled list to give up two runs in the ninth inning and blow the save in the Angels' 4-3 loss to Detroit.

Reporting from Baltimore — The Angels' fall from three consecutive division titles to a team that entered play Thursday with a sub-.500 record has involved plenty of culprits. Third baseman Brandon Wood never hit .200 before being relegated to the bench. Outfielder Juan Rivera has only 40 runs batted in and it's August. The list of underachievers goes on. Designated hitter Hideki Matsui is on pace for one of the worst seasons of his career. Pitcher Scott Kazmir is among the American League leaders … in earned runs allowed.

Angels reliever Scot Shields emerged from a closed-door meeting with Manager Mike Scioscia and pitching coach Mike Butcher on Monday afternoon and ... returned to his locker and finished getting dressed for pregame stretch. It almost seemed like an upset. The veteran right-hander's earned-run average jumped to 6.05 after he walked three, gave up two hits and three runs in 1 1/3 innings of the Angels' 9-4 loss in Detroit on Sunday. With relievers Jason Bulger and Brian Stokes close to being activated off the disabled list, Shields' days in Anaheim appear numbered.

It may have been Mike Scioscia's harshest — and most candid — assessment of a player in years. The Angels manager was asked Friday if the organization's evaluation of Brandon Wood has changed in light of the young infielder's continued struggles at the plate and some recent defensive woes. "We're seeing Brandon at his absolute worst, a kid whose confidence is very low right now," Scioscia said. "I don't know if you could have scripted a tougher start for a youngster trying to get his feet on the ground in the major leagues.

The longer the postgame interview went on, the more Mike Scioscia's voice filled with ire. The Angels manager has stressed patience during his team's lengthy offensive funk, but his anger and frustration were hard to suppress after a 4-3, 10-inning loss to Tampa Bay at Angel Stadium on Wednesday night. The Angels finally broke through with a rare clutch hit, a tying three-run double by Bobby Abreu in the bottom of the eighth inning, but they squandered numerous other chances, going two for 13 with runners in scoring position and striking out 11 times.

SAN DIEGO - This is not the stuff of which championship teams are made. The Angels had the chance to move within six games of the Texas Rangers for the first time in a month. Their starting pitcher was Dan Haren, a three-time All-Star. The opposing starting pitcher was Eric Stults, who last won a major league game three years ago. The opposing team was the San Diego Padres, with the worst record in the National League. The Angels lost, of course. It was not so much Saturday's final score - Padres 3, Angels 2 - that reflected the problem.

The first major repercussion from the Angels' disappointing 16-21 start occurred Tuesday night when the team announced that hitting coach Mickey Hatcher had been fired. He will be replaced by Jim Eppard, hitting coach at triple-A Salt Lake City. Hatcher's departure, announced after a 4-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday afternoon, ends a 13-year run with the Angels and an even longer relationship with Manager Mike Scioscia. The two played together with the Dodgers, and Hatcher, 57, served as Scioscia's hitting instructor when Scioscia managed the Dodgers' minor league team in Albuquerque in 1999.

If the Angels were in the English Premier League, they'd be in danger of being relegated to the second division right now. They didn't look like they belonged on the same field as the Texas Rangers on Friday night. Josh Hamilton continued his torrid slugging with his major league-leading 16th and 17th homers, a towering shot to right in the second inning and a laser to right in the fourth, and Yu Darvish weathered a 1-hour, 56-minute rain delay to throw 51/3 solid innings to lead the Rangers to a 10-3 victory at the Ballpark in Arlington.

The Angels figured Albert Pujols would have the bat taken out of his hands this season by opponents looking to intentionally walk or pitch around the slugger, not by their own manager. But with the first baseman mired in the worst slump of what many consider a Hall of Fame career, Mike Scioscia benched Pujols on Saturday night against the Blue Jays, the first time in 28 games he didn't write Pujols' name into the third spot. Pujols, hitting .194 with no home runs and five runs batted in, did not participate in batting practice.

CLEVELAND - If this isn't rock bottom, the Angels can definitely see it from here. A team that can't hit and is stocked with relievers who can't get anyone out found another way to lose Sunday when nine-time Gold Glove-winning right fielder Torii Hunter lost a routine fly ball in the sun, the key play in a 4-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians in Progressive Field. Right-hander Derek Lowe went through the Angels like a chainsaw through kindling, giving up three hits in 72/3 innings, and reliever Vinnie Pestano struck out Howie Kendrick with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to snuff out the Angels' only real threat.

CLEVELAND - The Angels made two dramatic moves Friday night, but neither involved a battered bullpen that suffered another meltdown in a 3-2 walk-off loss to the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Two days after Manager Mike Scioscia said Mike Trout wouldn't be called up from triple-A Salt Lake unless there was a "significant" role for him, the Angels promoted the dynamic 20-year-old outfielder to the big leagues and said he will play regularly, beginning Saturday. "We want to get Mike in the lineup, see if we can add a little energy, some spice," General Manager Jerry Dipoto, who joined the team Friday night, said after the Angels suffered their fifth consecutive loss and fell to 6-14.

Reporting from Detroit -- As dominant as Fernando Rodney and Kevin Jepsen have been, and as inconsistent as the rest of the bullpen has been, there would seem to be a temptation to expand the use of Rodney and Jepsen, whose appearances have been limited to one inning or less. Not going to happen, Mike Scioscia said. "One inning … one inning," the Angels' manager said, shaking his head. "There could be some circumstances to expand, but right now it's one inning.

Mike Napoli , mired in a horrendous slump, started behind the plate Friday for only the fifth time this month. And although Manager Mike Scioscia is concerned with the veteran catcher's offensive production, he said what Napoli does on defense is far more important. Entering the weekend, the Angels' earned-run average with Napoli catching was 5.20, nearly a run and a quarter higher than when Jeff Mathis was behind the plate. And Napoli has caught less than 16% of would-be base stealers.

CLEVELAND - Now Jordan Walden knows how Fernando Rodney felt last season. An All-Star as a rookie in 2011, Walden lost his job as Angels closer after one blown save in 2012, just as Rodney did last year. Manager Mike Scioscia announced before Friday night's game against the Cleveland Indians that veteran left-hander Scott Downs will close, with Walden moving to a seventh- or eighth-inning role "for right now," Scioscia said. Walden entered Thursday's game against Tampa Bay with one out in the ninth inning, the bases empty and the Angels leading by a run. B.J. Upton singled, and Brandon Allen crushed a pinch-hit, two-run home run to give the Rays a 4-3 walk-off victory and extend the Angels' losing streak to four games.