Santana Debut Isn’t Smooth

CLEVELAND —  Ervin Santana had a memorable major league debut for the Angels on Tuesday. One day he can tell his grandchildren that he pitched for the cycle on the first four batters he faced.

While there will almost certainly be better days ahead for Santana, he had to live with that bit of trivia and a 13-5 loss to the Cleveland Indians in his first game.

Santana, a 22-year-old right-hander called up from double-A to fill a spot in the starting rotation, walked to the mound to toss his first big league pitch -- a fastball that was wide. What followed was Indian batting practice in front of an announced 15,033 at Jacobs Field.

Grady Sizemore -- triple.

Coco Crisp -- double.

Travis Hafner -- single.

Ben Broussard -- 416-foot home run.

By the time those four had hit -- and hit hard -- the Indians must have been lining up at the bat rack.

The only positive note in the first four batters was that Crisp was called out when he over slid third base.

Thus, Santana’s 26-pitch first inning ended with the Indians leading only 3-1.

Even with that kind of baptism, the Angels saw a lot that they liked.

“That kid is going to be exciting to watch,” catcher Bengie Molina said.

“When he learns a little bit and gets his feet wet, he’s going to be fun to watch. His velocity was fine, his location wasn’t. He learned tonight that you can’t live down the middle of the plate. You got to move the ball around and change speeds.”

Santana will get at least one more chance to show his stuff as Kelvim Escobar will miss at least one more start while on the disabled list with a bone spur in his right elbow.

But even after his shaky first inning, Santana was already cramming information into his head.

“I was saying to myself, ‘Let’s do it, let’s do it, let’s do it, you can do better than that,’ ” Santana said.

One of the Angels’ top prospect, Santana consistently hit between 91 and 95 mph with his fastball, but some of the pitches left home plate even faster.

Of the eight hits he gave up, six were for extra bases.

This came facing the team with the lowest batting average in the American League. The 13 runs and 19 hits were season highs for the Indians.

“I was going too fast to the plate that first inning,” Santana said. “Today, everything was up. Everything was down the middle. I’ll be better next time.”

Still, by the end of the evening Santana’s performance looked no worse than any other Angel who pitched. Kevin Gregg and Esteban Yan, the two relievers who followed, were clobbered much the same by the Indians, who hit three home runs in the game.

“Once he learns that the mound is the same distance to home here, you’ll see one heck of a pitcher,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

Down and out early, the Angels immersed themselves in group therapy at the plate and ended up with a season-high 15 hits. They were hitting .211 in May before the game.

Much of that poor production was rooted in the top of the order. Chone Figgins, the leadoff batter, had one hit in his last 34 at-bats and Darin Erstad, who bats second, was seven for his last 51.

“It all starts at the top,” said Erstad, who had two hits and scored a run Tuesday. “Figgy and I have to start getting on base and set the table for the rest of the lineup.”

The switch-hitting Figgins had three hits, including a single against a left-handed pitcher, giving him only five hits in 49 at-bats hitting right-handed.