Slumping Eckstein Doesn’t Start

Saying his shortstop was “pressing a little bit,” Manager Mike Scioscia kept David Eckstein out of the starting lineup as the Angels opened a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox at Angel Stadium.

Eckstein, in a four-for-30 slump and batting .212 since Aug. 1, said he didn’t think he had been hitting that poorly until Thursday, when he went hitless in four at-bats with two strikeouts during the Angels’ 5-4 loss to Toronto.

“I just haven’t been able to find any hits,” said Eckstein, hitting .279 overall. “You never want a day off, especially down the stretch. You always feel like this will be the day you’ll be able to get out there and get back on track.”

Alfredo Amezaga replaced Eckstein at shortstop, making his first start since June 24, and Chone Figgins took Eckstein’s spot atop the batting order.

Eckstein entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and had a sacrifice bunt, then singled in the eighth and scored what proved to be the winning run on Garret Anderson’s single.

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Tim Salmon rejoined the Angels and said he expected to have the first of his two major surgeries early next week. Salmon said he wouldn’t know whether the procedure on his left knee would precede the one on his left shoulder until he met with Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Angels’ medical director.

“If you do the shoulder first, then you can’t do the knee until your shoulder is feeling better because you can’t be on crutches after [shoulder surgery],” said Salmon, whose 1,596 games as an Angel are second only to Brian Downing’s 1,661. “It’s probably a two- to three-month gap between the surgeries.”

Salmon, limited by injuries to 60 games this season, said he had not given up on a comeback even though he would probably miss the entire 2005 season.

“I hear some of the things you guys [in the media] are writing and it’s like, man, you’re throwing the dirt on me already,” said Salmon, owed $9.75 million by the Angels next season. “In my mind, and I don’t know how realistic it is, I’m looking to rehab it and get back and see what I can do.

“I’d like to give it everything I’ve got to come back and give it a shot of finishing up better than this year. If I come back and I can’t do it or it’s not the same, at least I did everything I could.”

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Darin Erstad, whom Scioscia has labeled the best first baseman in baseball, committed his first “legitimate” error of the season Thursday in the sixth inning when he stumbled a bit going into the hole for Alexis Rios’ looper. The ball hit Erstad’s glove and dropped out, and he was charged with his second error. His first error came against Detroit in April after he sprinted about 100 feet into foul territory and lunged for an over-the-shoulder catch but couldn’t make it.... The Angels’ game against the Oakland Athletics on Sept. 26 at Angel Stadium, originally scheduled for a 1 p.m. start, has been switched to 5 p.m. to accommodate an ESPN telecast.