Angels Are Hapless in a 10-5 Loss

Jim Slaton has experienced adversity--a torn rotator cuff, for example, and a history of uncertainty regarding his role--and he has learned to persevere.

Which is just as well, because perseverance was what was needed Monday night as Slaton and the Angels lost another game, this time a 10-5 setback to the lowly Texas Rangers.

Now leading Oakland by only a game in the West, the Angels displayed traits normally associated with the Rangers: bad pitching, bad defense and bad base running.

An 11-hit attack that included three hits by both Rod Carew and Reggie Jackson and a three run-homer by Ruppert Jones was ultimately nullified by a 12-hit Texas attack that featured first baseman Pete O’Brien.

Batting .355 over his last 21 games, O’Brien slugged a two-run homer in the first and a three-run double in a five-run second. He doubled again in the seventh and scored the final Texas run on a single by Larry Parrish.

Slaton pitched two innings, yielding five hits and seven runs. Each of the first two innings might have been scoreless with better fielding, but that was of no solace to Slaton, who sat at his locker later and said:

“The only thing that matters is if you win, and all I’ve been doing is losing.”

After a 3-0 April, Slaton finds himself 4-7.

He has pitched well and lost. He has pitched poorly and lost.

His last win was May 19. He has lost five straight since then.

In the three immediately preceeding Monday night’s, he pitched eight innings to no decision in a 2-1 win over Chicago, then lost twice to Bert Blyleven by scores of 2-1 and 2-0.

“I have no theories,” he said. “Losses are losses. They’re all hard to take, especially when you get five runs and can’t do anything with it.”

Slaton had two outs in the first when Buddy Bell was credited with a single on a poor throw by shortstop Craig Gerber. O’Brien then hit his ninth home run.

All five runs in the second inning were unearned.

Doug DeCinces booted Parrish’s inning-opening grounder. There was one out when Glenn Brummer singled. There were two outs when Oddibe McDowell walked to load the bases.

Wayne Tolleson singled in two runs, Bell walked to reload the bases, and the left-handed hitting O’Brien then went with an outside fastball, slicing it to left-center for his three-run double.

Luis Sanchez was on the mound when the third inning started.

“I thought I had real good stuff,” Slaton said. “I thought I made only one real mistake, the fastball that I got up to O’Brien (which he deposited into the right-field bleachers).”

Slaton paused, shaking his head.

“Each time I go out there I think I’m going to start a winning streak,” he said. “I’ve gone through these things before. I know you have to take it one game at a time. I mean, you can give up or keep trying. I’m not going to give up.”

Manager Gene Mauch said he doesn’t view Slaton as a defeated, discouraged pitcher.

“I don’t feel Slaton feels desperate for a win,” he said. “I don’t see that. He warmed up as good as I’ve ever seen him tonight. He had his best curve of the season and took it into the game. I really felt good about it. Then we gave them a couple extra outs and they capitalized.”

The Angels had scored two runs in the first on a Juan Beniquez double, singles by Jackson and Carew (now within 30 hits of 3,000) and a DeCinces fly out.

Rookie Glen Cook, in his second big league start, righted himself to protect the 7-2 Texas lead until the sixth, when Jones hit a three-run homer, his 12th, the club high.

The Angels were back in it, but not for long.

A walk and an infield single in the home sixth spelled trouble for Sanchez, who had pitched three shutout innings. Stewart Cliburn was brought in to face right-handed pinch-hitter Bill Stein and gave up a two-run single, in addition to the run in the seventh.

Dave Rozema and Dave Schmidt preserved the expanded lead over the last three innings, Schmidt getting Beniquez to ground into a double play with the bases loaded in the ninth.

Mauch later excused Bobby Grich for getting thrown out attempting to stretch a single into a double with two out in the sixth, chalking it up to a good play by left-fielder Gary Ward. He was less enamored of Jones’ futile bid to move from first to third on a two-out single by Grich in the fourth.

Angel Notes

The Steve Rogers experiment may be over. Angel General Manager Mike Port said he talked with Rogers’ attorney, Dick Moss, on Monday and would probably have an announcement today. The former Montreal right-hander made his fifth start for Edmonton on Sunday, yielding 10 hits and four runs in eight innings of a 6-5 loss to Portland. In 35 innings, Rogers has allowed 42 hits and 15 earned runs. He’s walked 13 and struck out 19. “I don’t want to say anything that could be detrimental to Steve,” Port said. “The numbers tend to speak for themselves. I mean, we’re satisfied with our own pitching, so the question is, do we carry the experiment further? I’ll talk to Dick again tomorrow, and probably have more to say then.” . . . Gary Pettis received ice and whirlpool treatments and said his sprained left wrist was no better or worse than after he injured it Sunday. Pettis lost a layer of skin because of the rug burn on his right hand and said, “I’m going to go back (to Kansas City) to get the rest of my hand.” Port, alluding to the possibility of Pettis going on the disabled list, said: “We’ll have a better fix (on how long Pettis will be out) over the next several days.” . . . Rod Carew said that a story in USA Today, implying that he wasn’t talking to the media, is inaccurate. Carew said he didn’t talk to the USA Today writer because he was trying to create a controversial story dealing with Carew’s relationship with Reggie Jackson. “I respect Reggie and Reggie respects me,” Carew told the Angel press corps on Monday. “When you work closely with someone for six or seven months there may be blowups, but Reggie and I air it out and go on from there.” Carew said he was jesting when he told the USA Today writer that he wouldn’t talk when he got his 3,000th hit and may not talk when (and if) he’s elected to the Hall of Fame. “No matter what I say and how I say it,” Carew said Monday, “it seems to come out wrong. If I am a little reluctant to talk to the media, that’s one of the reasons.” . . . The Angels’ Monday night game with Milwaukee at Anaheim Stadium, scheduled for 5:20, has been moved to 5:07 to accommodate an ABC telecast. . . . Ruth John, the 72-year-old mother of ex-Angel Tommy John, died after a long illness Monday. Funeral services will be held in Terre Haute, Ind., today. . . . John’s signing by the Oakland A’s is believed imminent. . . . Kirk McCaskill (2-5) faces rookie Bob Sebra (0-0) tonight.