By Doug Padilla
Staff Writer

MESA, Ariz. Two injuries last week have the Angels scrambling to make contingency plans with a week to go before Opening Day.
Chone Figgins’ two broken fingers on his right hand and Kelvim Escobar’s strained lower back have created new scenarios.
Figgins will start on the disabled list and miss the first month of the season, opening up a roster spot. Tommy Murphy and Reggie Willits were believed to be battling to make the major-league club before Figgins went down. Now they both have the opportunity to start the season in Anaheim.
But since Murphy and Willits are so similar, guys like Nick Gorneault, Curtis Pride, Kendry Morales and even Jeff Mathis are getting a renewed look.
Gorneault would provide right-handed power off the bench and would be able to spell Garret Anderson in left and Vladimir Guerrero in right but would not offer any coverage in center field. Pride offers the same defensively but would provide a left-handed bat off the bench.
Morales and Mathis still seem destined for Triple-A Salt Lake, even with the new roster opening.
(Gorneault) does have a live bat and that could be something we’re going to look at, manager Mike Scioscia said. If you can project what our lineup is, there’s not going to be a lot of maneuvering, especially early on, for guys pinch hitting. It’s probably going to be more of a pinch-running situation or possibly a tweak in the lineup to get (Robb Quinlan) in there.
The desire for pinch runners would seem to suggest that speed supplied by both Murphy and Willits will give then an advantage.
We haven’t ruled out Murphy and Willits on the same club, Scioscia said. I don’t think they are the same player. I know there are similarities but they each bring a different dimension. There could be a role for both of those guys on our club.
Escobar had been scheduled to start in Thursday’s Freeway Series opener at Dodger Stadium, but he will now remain in Arizona that day and pitch in the controlled environment of a camp game. He still is expected to make his season debut on April 3.
He’s feeling much better, Scioscia said. He will throw a bullpen before to make sure he is where he needs to be and he’ll throw in a camp game to get to 90 to 100 pitches and hopefully be out there for seven-plus innings.