Angels Lapse Into 5-3 Loss in Showdown : Slaton Drops 6th Straight; Blue Jays Win 5th in Row

Fundamentally speaking, this wasn’t the way the Angels had hoped to open a four-game July showdown between the American League’s division leaders.

Neither was this what Jim Slaton had hoped for in what may have been one of his last appearances as a regular member of the Angel rotation.

Faced with the knowledge that Geoff Zahn is now expected to leave the disabled list soon after the All-Star break, Slaton was unable to snap a losing streak that has now reached six games.

He worked only 4 innings of a 5-3 loss to Toronto, his eighth defeat in 12 decisions overall and his eighth setback in his last nine decisions.

The 35-year-old right-hander deserved a little better in this one, but the Angels, who have been executing exquisitely in their rise to the Western Division lead, encountered a rare breakdown.

“We played a very poor game,” Manager Gene Mauch said, “and I just don’t want to talk about it. It just wasn’t up to our best level.”

The result was an end to the Angels’ four-game win streak and an extension of a Toronto winning streak to five.

The Blue Jays lead the East by 4 1/2 games over Detroit. The Angels lead Oakland in the West by 5.

The two plays that proved costly to the Angels were these:

--Rob Wilfong booted a potential double-play grounder in the fifth, an inning in which Toronto scored three runs but should have scored only one.

--Rod Carew, who collected the 1,000th RBI of his career and drew within 16 hits of 3,000 with a double and two singles, apparently thought that right fielder Jesse Barfield had no chance to throw him out as he attempted to move from second to third on a Juan Beniquez fly in the seventh.

Barfield, however, made a powerful throw that doubled Carew, who set a strangely dawdling pace, then failed to slide.

Ensuing singles by Reggie Jackson and Doug DeCinces were wasted when Gary Lavelle ultimately came on to strike out Brian Downing for the final out of an inning in which the Angels got a double and two singles without scoring.

Carew declined to discuss the play later.

Mauch gave credit to Barfield, who has 10 throwing assists and also threw out two runners in Tuesday’s game at Seattle.

“He’s probably the only guy in the league that can throw the ball that way,” Mauch said. “He threw out the world in Seattle.”

The aborted rally represented a last gasp for the Angels. Lavelle pitched a hitless 2 innings for his fourth save, preserving starter Doyle Alexander’s eighth win against six losses.

Alexander worked 6 innings, scattering 10 hits.

The Angels scored a solo run in the second on a single by Ruppert Jones (who has hit in 13 straight games), a stolen base and a Bobby Grich single.

A two-out single by Dick Schofield in the fourth, a bloop double by Bob Boone and a single by Carew accounted for two more and a 3-1 lead.

The Blue Jays rebounded in the fifth, however.

Damaso Garcia singled to open the inning. Lloyd Moseby walked. Rance Mulliniks singled to score Garcia, making it 3-2. Slaton got George Bell on a pop-up, then saw Al Oliver, the ex-Dodger, slash a grounder at Wilfong, who moved in to challenge the short hop, looking for the double play.

The ball caromed off his glove and into center field for an error, Moseby scoring the tying run. Slaton left, having allowed six hits, three walks and three earned runs. A fourth run, unearned, scored when Willie Upshaw greeted successor Pat Clements with a single.

“Instead of laying back and taking a chance (on losing the double play),” Wilfong said later, “I thought I’d be aggressive. It wasn’t a bad hop. I missed the ball. I thought if I charged it, we’d have a real good chance at two.”

The Blue Jays’ lead became two runs in the sixth when Garcia doubled and ultimately scored on Bell’s two-out infield single. Doug DeCinces made an acrobatic stop of the grounder wide of third but had trouble reaching his feet and eventually made a late throw to first.

This wasn’t the way the Angels had taken the biggest lead in club history, but it was a familiar pattern for the Blue Jays, whose 11-hit attack was led by Mulliniks, the left-handed half of their third-base platoon. An ex-Angel, Mulliniks singled and doubled twice, driving in one run and scoring two as his team improved the major leagues’ best record to 53-32.

Angel Notes

Manager Gene Mauch said Rod Carew would have made the All-Star team for a 19th straight year had it not been for the May foot injury that put him on the disabled list and prevented him from reaching 3,000 hits before the All-Star break. “I was hoping he’d get the 3,000 early, then it (his selection) would have been an automatic,” Mauch said. “I wanted him to get the national recognition he deserves. Now, there won’t be quite the hullabaloo there would have been had he done it before the All-Star game.” . . . Daryl Sconiers received a cortisone injection for a sore right wrist and is expected to be ready by Saturday, when right-hander Dave Stieb pitches for Toronto. . . . Kirk McCaskill (4-5) faces Toronto left-hander Jimmy Key (7-3, 2.59 ERA) tonight. Key, something of a surprise selection to Sparky Anderson’s All-Star pitching staff, said: “I’d ruled it out. I didn’t think I had enough wins.”