Woods’ Solid Play Is Bad for Prinz

MINNEAPOLIS — The better left-hander Jake Woods pitches out of the Angel bullpen, the more setbacks reliever Bret Prinz seems to have.

Prinz, on the disabled list because of a strained right shoulder, experienced soreness in the rotator-cuff area while playing catch Friday and was unable to throw out of the bullpen as scheduled Saturday.

Plans for Prinz to report to the team’s extended spring-training camp in Arizona were scrapped, and Prinz, who has been on the DL since April 11, will not throw again until Monday or Tuesday.

“It’s more weakness and discomfort than pain,” said Prinz, who has appeared in only three games after being acquired from the Yankees in March. “The trainers told me the stamina in the shoulder is not built up enough. It’s really frustrating.”

Easing the loss of Prinz has been Woods’ emergence as a left-handed specialist, a luxury the Angels haven’t had since 2003. Woods has a 2.00 earned-run average in nine games and has been pitching in more prominent, late-inning situations with every appearance.

If Woods continues to excel -- the rookie has limited left-handed hitters to a .125 average (two for 16) so far -- it will be difficult for Prinz to regain his bullpen spot when he is sound.

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Manager Mike Scioscia spoke with Dallas McPherson about mental mistakes he made running the bases Thursday against the Yankees and Friday against the Twins, but Scioscia did not admonish the speedy Chone Figgins for getting thrown out at third trying to stretch a double into a triple in the first inning Friday, even though Figgins broke a baseball tenet by making the first out of an inning at third.

“We don’t have that rule,” Scioscia said. “Part of Figgins’ talent and what the team needs is to keep pushing that envelope, to get into better scoring position. You’ve got to give [the Twins] credit. They made a clean relay and a perfect throw to third and they got him. But our baserunning helps us score far more runs than the outs we’re going to give up.”

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Though Steve Finley finished April with a .149 average, Scioscia said he has not considered moving the center fielder from the fifth spot in the order to second, where he might get better pitches to hit in front of Vladimir Guerrero.

Since Figgins was moved from ninth to second on April 22, he is batting .455 (15 for 33) with five runs and five runs batted in, raising his average from .237 to .315, and leadoff batter Darin Erstad is hitting .288 with 17 runs.

“We’d like to get [Finley] going, but those guys have been doing a good job setting the table,” Scioscia said of Erstad and Figgins. “You don’t want to mess with that.”

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ANGELS TODAY ANGELS’ BARTOLO COLON

vs. TWINS’ JOHAN SANTANA

*--* THE MATCHUPS 2005 2004 VS OPP TEAMS/PITCHERS W-L ERA TEAM W-L IP ERA ANGELS/Colon (R) 3-2 3.73 3-2 0-1 6.0 7.50 Minnesota/Santana (L) 4-0 3.55 5-0 1-0 14.0 1.29

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The Metrodome, 11 a.m. PDT

TV --FSN West. Radio --710, 1020.

Update --The Angels will need a bounce-back performance from Colon, who allowed Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez to homer three times and knock in nine runs in his first three at-bats Tuesday night, to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of the Twins. Santana, the hard-throwing left-hander who won the American League Cy Young Award in 2004, has won his last 17 decisions, a streak that spans 20 starts and began before last season’s All-Star game.

-- Mike DiGiovanna