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Vernon Wells and Mike Trout back CJ Wilson and lead Angels over Padres' split squad 7-4

By: The Associated Press

Posted: 03/17/2013 6:28 PM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 03/17/2013 9:12 PM

San Diego Padres green St. Patrick's Day caps sit in the dugout between innings during a spring training exhibition baseball game between the Padres and the Los Angeles Angels in Tempe, Ariz., Sunday, March 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

TEMPE, Ariz. - Padres manager Bud Black could be in for a long night worrying about the health of his slugger Chase Headley.

Headley jammed his thumb sliding into second base during a San Diego split squad's 7-4 loss to the loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday.

"The X-Rays did not show exact results," Padres manager Bud Black said. "It's safe to say he won't be in the lineup (Monday)."

Black said Headley's thumb hit second base when he slid into the bag trying to break up a double-play.

Los Angeles' Vernon Wells hit his fourth spring training home run and Mike Trout had a two-run triple to back C.J. Wilson.

Wells thinks he's having his best spring in more than five years, but he's still going to be the odd man out when the season starts.

Wells went 2 for 2 to raise his spring training average to .423 after two poor seasons with the Angels. Problem is, Los Angeles has three stars in the outfield: Peter Bourjos in centre field, Trout in left and Josh Hamilton in right.

"I haven't really had a good spring since '06," Wells said. "This, in my opinion, is similar to back then. I want to get back to what I was doing back then."

Wells hit .317 with 32 homers and drove in 106 runs for Toronto in 2006. He hit .230 with 11 homers and 29 RBIs for the Angels in an injury-plagued season last year with the Angels. In 2011, he slumped to .218 with 25 homers and 66 RBIs, his first season in Los Angeles.

"My whole off-season was to get to playing the kind of baseball I'm capable of playing," said Wells, who will make $21 million this season. "In spring training, some people put value in it and some don't. My goal is to come in and approach it the same way like it's a regular-season game.

"I'm trying to get good pitches to hit. I'm not trying to do too much with them. I'm trying to let my hand dictate what the outcome is," Wells added. "I'm not sure I'm going to hit .417 during the regular season, but I'm going to give myself a better chance than I did the last few years."

Wells hit a slider from Freddy Garcia over the wall in left in the fourth. Garcia allowed six runs and six hits in his fifth spring training start.

Garcia went 7-6 with a 5.20 ERA with the New York Yankees in 2012. In his previous start, he retired the first eight batters, six by strikeout. He went four innings and allowed one run.

"We saw some good secondary pitches," Padres manager Bud Black said. "We saw some swings and misses. He got some balls up in the strike zone. When the secondary pitches are down, we see good results."

Angels' left-hander C.J. Wilson allowed five hits and one run in 5 1-3 innings.

Wilson, 13-10 with a 3.83 ERA in 2012 with the Angels, made his third Cactus League start.

"It was a weird game for me," Wilson said. "I was efficient in a lot of ways but I also had long at-bats where guys were fouling off pitches and that's an indication that my stuff wasn't really sharp."

Wilson wanted to be the first Angels' starter to reach the sixth inning and he pushed manager Mike Scioscia to let him do so.

"I thought it was important for me to get out there and get that little wrap-around," Wilson said.

Said Scioscia: "I thought he pitched the way you'd want him to pitch when he gets his first start of the season. I thought he was excellent. He had a stretch where he was getting under his changeup and it was elevated."

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