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Mike Scioscia gives Cory Rasmus quick hook in Angels’ loss

Angels starter Cory Rasmus delivers a pitch in the first inning of a 13-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners in Anaheim on Sept. 16.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Cory Rasmus said he felt “pretty good” after allowing one hit and throwing just 43 pitches in four scoreless innings Tuesday night, the Angels right-hander adding that he “would have liked to have” started the fifth inning.

Manager Mike Scioscia said Rasmus looked “pretty gassed,” the scorching 96-degree temperature taking a toll on the reliever-turned-starter who was filling in for injured right-hander Garrett Richards for the fourth time.

You don’t have to be a 15-year Angels season-ticket holder to know who won that little tug-of-war.

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Rasmus did not take the fifth. He handed the ball and a two-run lead to one of baseball’s best bullpens, and the Angels imploded in a 13-2 loss to Seattle in which the Mariners scored four runs off Jason Grilli in the fifth inning and six runs off Fernando Salas and Joe Thatcher in the sixth.

“We didn’t get it done on the mound,” Scioscia said. “Cory Rasmus got us off on the right foot, he got the game on our terms, and we just didn’t pass the baton like we have all year.

“These bullpen days, when we’ve gotten to certain points of game with a lead, we’ve held it. Give those guys credit. They hit ball well and turned it into a boat race.”

Rasmus did not take on any water. He struck out four and walked none in his four innings and still had some wiggle room below his career-high pitch count of 51, set on Aug. 25. “I was kind of cruising there,” he said.

So why not let him go another inning?

“Cory was tired after the fourth,” Scioscia said. “We had our bullpen lined up, we felt good about getting our guys in and not having to stretch Cory. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”

If Seattle hadn’t lengthened the bottom of the fourth by removing starter Roenis Elias because of an injury, and if the Angels had something bigger than a 2-0 lead, Scioscia said he would have extended Rasmus.

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“We would have had the option of giving him seven or 10 more pitches to see where game was -- we would have given it more consideration,” Scioscia said. “But based on where we were, the length of the previous inning ... he threw the ball as well as you could throw it, no doubt about it. But there’s an end point for him now, and he was there.”

Rasmus would like to extend that end point, and with Matt Shoemaker sidelined by a mild left-oblique strain, an injury that could threaten the right-hander’s availability for the playoffs, the Angels may have little choice but to stretch out Rasmus, who could be their fourth starter in the playoffs.

“I’d like to go longer, but it’s only my fourth start, so I can’t be greedy with it,” Rasmus said. “You have to make sure you work it outing by outing and build up your endurance.”

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