Mike Scioscia

A failed suicide squeeze in the playoffs did nothing to sour the Angels on Manager Mike Scioscia, who has agreed in principle to a lengthy contract extension that will take him through at least the 2015 season. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but General Manager Tony Reagins said that Scioscia, already the longest-tenured manager in the American League, "will be around for a long, long time." Scioscia's current deal, which is believed to pay him about $1.

Mike Scioscia doesn't need fancy statistics to tell him what he sees with his own two eyes: The Angels have not played very good defense this season. In case the manager needed some numbers to support his belief, there are plenty. The Angels have a .979 fielding percentage, fourth-worst in baseball, and they've committed 16 errors, leading to 12 unearned runs. They have an ultimate zone rating of minus 9.0, second-worst in baseball.

One day after Ervin Santana was rocked for seven runs and nine hits in one inning of a 17-3 loss to the White Sox, Manager Mike Scioscia and the Angels pitcher maintained Santana's elbow was OK. Santana was making his third start after missing the first six weeks of the season because of an elbow ligament sprain. His fastball hovered in the 92-mph range, down from its usual 95-96 mph, and his off-speed pitches were not sharp.

Mike Scioscia says he hasn't settled on a postseason roster, but the contours of the Angels' pitching rotation for their first-round series with the Boston Red Sox appear to be taking shape. Scioscia announced that right-hander Ervin Santana, who gave the Angels the division title Monday with a seven-hit shutout of the Texas Rangers, will start the playoffs in the bullpen. Scioscia juggled his pitching staff to have John Lackey, Jered Weaver, Scott Kazmir and Joe Saunders start the final four regular-season games in that order, and that's likely to be the way they will pitch against Boston.

This will disappoint fans who are always clamoring for Mike Napoli to catch more because he is a superior hitter than Jeff Mathis , but the job will continue to be split, and for good reason. Through Friday, Napoli's catcher's earned-run average was 5.56 in 540 1/3 innings, nearly a full run and a half higher than Mathis' 4.09 ERA in 462 innings. And defense, as anyone who has been around Manager Mike Scioscia knows, will always be the top priority for Angels catchers.

Joe Torre is so successful and baseball players so enthralled with champagne celebrations that the Dodgers manager might soon qualify as a sommelier . . . . Mike Scioscia too. . . . As if Sunday's flameout in Fenway Park wasn't bad enough, here's another possible nightmare scenario for Boston Red Sox fans: Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers in the World Series against the Red Sox's hated rivals, the New York Yankees. . . . If the Dodgers and Angels meet in the Fall Classic, the series would open Oct. 28 at Angel Stadium and, according to sportsbook.

Stopped by Angel Stadium on Tuesday night because I thought it would make a nice backdrop while watching the Dodgers game on TV. The Dodgers are so much more interesting than the Angels, the Angels players handcuffed and muzzled by their manager, a foregone conclusion every year they're going to win in a subpar division and then lose to the Red Sox in the playoffs. I had some time to kill waiting for the Dodgers game to start, so I visited the Angels' clubhouse to see whether anyone had developed any charisma the last few months.

While acknowledging that Trevor Bell "had kind of a clunker in Toronto," Mike Scioscia isn't ready to trade in the 22-year-old for another fifth starter. The Angels manager said Monday that Bell would start again Friday against Oakland, with Matt Palmer likely to assume the No. 5 spot in the rotation if Bell continues to struggle. Bell was hammered for six runs in only 1 2/3 innings Sunday against Toronto and is 1-1 with a 9.49 earned-run average in three starts. "We have a lot confidence he'll bounce back and give us a good game," said Scioscia, who will need seven more starts from a fifth starter over the season's final six weeks.

Look at the back of Chone Figgins' baseball card and the statistics from the 2006 season stand out -- for all the wrong reasons. He hit a career-low .267 that summer and struck out 100 times. Yet Figgins said that was the year that turned his career around. "I needed to find ways to get on base without getting hits," he said. "You're not going to get hits all the time, so I had to find another way to get on base if I wanted to be a legit leadoff hitter." So Figgins became more selective at the plate, began drawing more walks and as a result, Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said, he's become arguably the best leadoff hitter in baseball.

The heavens blessed the Angels. The rain won at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, but so did the visiting team. If the Angels get to Game 7 on Monday, following two days off and Game 6 tonight, they could have several attractive choices for their starting pitcher. "Are you . . . me?" John Lackey said. "This is mine." Lackey said that Thursday, as Mike Scioscia pulled him from Game 5 with a shutout intact. Lackey did not say that Saturday, but he did not have to. If the Angels get to Game 7, it's his. All we heard before the series was how the mighty New York Yankees could vanquish the Angels by using CC Sabathia three times.