Upon entry at the Los Angeles Angels home game on Thursday, each ticket-holder was handed a plastic red “Angels pitcher”, and inside were four white plastic Angels cups.

The cups had the names of four members of the Angels’ starting rotation, and their numbers: “Santana 54” … “Weaver 36” … “Wilson 33” … “Haren 24”.

Let’s just say the timing of this promotion was a little off. Or the timing was perfect, depending on your access to potent potables.

Back in the offseason, presumably when this promotion was invented, it must have seemed a fine idea.

The Angels liked three of their starting pitchers quite a bit, and the hope was that the fourth, Ervin Santana, could revert to form shown in previous seasons.

But by the time August 16 rolled around, and the red plastic “Angels pitcher” (made in China) and cups were handed out, the Angels’ starting pitchers were leading them straight out of the playoffs.

If we include the crushing, 10-8 defeat tonight — which included C.J. Wilson unable to get through the fifth inning despite being handed an 8-0 lead — the Angels have been strafed for 123 runs while going 5-12 in 17 games this month (that’s 7.2 runs per game), and the starters have been responsible for much of it.

Dan Haren has been particularly shaky. He has given up at least one home run (15 total) in 10 consecutive starts. Ben Zobrist and B.J. Upton took him deep in the Thursday game. Haren has been so bad, you almost assume he must be hurt — but the Angels keep running him out there.

Santana has been the Bad Santana — meaning one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball. But he has yet to miss a start.

Wilson has not been the kind of guy you spend $77.5 million on (over five seasons), which the Angels did in the offseason. He is walking people, and his record is now 9-9.

Jered Weaver had been the rock of the rotation, but even he has been shaky before and after the “Angels pitcher” promotion: he has lost his past two outings, and was rocked for nine runs in three-plus innings by the Rays. His ERA has shot up from 2.13 to 2.74 in the span of a week.

And the four guys noted on the giveaway cups are being paid huge amounts of money this year: $14.2 million for Weaver, $12.8 million for Haren, $11.2 million for Santana and $10.5 million for Wilson.

Luckily, the cups were produced before the Angels obtained Zach Greinke via trade. Had they thrown him in as a fifth cup … Well, let’s just say Greinke is 1-2 with an ERA of 6.19 in the five starts of his Angels career.

So, the “Angels pitcher” — had to sound like a great idea, when the Pechanga Resort Casino agreed to sponsor the giveaway.

Now, however, the pitcher seems best used, among hard-core Angels fans, for drowning their sorrows with cheap beer. To suitably distract him or her from the work of Santana 54, Weaver 36, Wilson 33 and Haren 24.