Angels Back in Eastern Mine Field : Their Pennant Hopes May Rest on 10 Games Against Testy Foes

This is where it almost fell apart for the Angels, in late May and early June, when a 1-7 trip through their least favorite Eastern ports left them in last place in the American League West.

By the time the Angels completed their first 1987 swing through Baltimore, Toronto and New York, they had endured their longest losing streak of the decade--nine games--and had checked out the view from seventh place.

After ending a May home stand with four straight defeats at the hands of the Yankees, the Angels lost two games by scores of 8-6 and 8-7 in Baltimore, were swept in Toronto and lost two of three in New York.

So, on June 3, the Angels found themselves at the bottom of the AL West standings. It was the latest the Angels had been in last place since Aug. 3, 1980.

“We took a spin that last time,” Angel reliever DeWayne Buice said. “Everything fell apart.”

A season appeared to be dashed. Three weeks later, the Angels were still eight games under .500, up to sixth place but still 8 1/2 games out of first.

It took a Herculean recovery--8 straight victories and 16 wins in 20 games--to resurrect the team before the All-Star break. Remarkably, the Angels had lifted themselves into contention again and, now, with 35 games left, are within 3 games of the top.

Today, however, they will open a 10-game run through those same cities. This time, the message is perfectly clear.

“I don’t think we can afford that this time around,” third baseman Doug DeCinces said.

How important is this trip to the Angels? Manager Gene Mauch considers it a waste of breath to even try to put it into words.

“Can I make it any more obvious than it already is?” he asked reporters Tuesday night. “I doubt that. I don’t want to insult your readers.”

The Angels enjoy a late-season scheduling advantage--they close with 12 straight games against the American League’s two worst teams, Cleveland and Chicago--but to make it mean anything, they have to hold their ground on this trip, staying within five or six games of the division lead.

To do that, the Angels will probably have to break even in these 10 games, or at least finish 4-6.

It won’t be easy. The Angels are 1-7 against Baltimore this season and just last week suffered a three-game sweep in Anaheim. They are 2-7 against New York and 5-10 during the last three seasons at Toronto.

And don’t forget the May-June plunge.

But, according to Angel consensus, this is not the same team that lost nine straight games. That team did not have Kirk McCaskill and John Candelaria in its starting rotation. That team hadn’t acquired a couple of former Boston hitters named Bill Buckner and Tony Armas. That team had a bullpen consisting basically of Buice.

“I think we’re a better team now,” DeCinces said. “Just by the experience, hopefully, we should be better.

“We’ve got McCaskill back. (Mike) Witt is pitching better, (Don) Sutton is pitching better. Candelaria’s back. We have a bullpen now. We didn’t have one then.

“When we left spring training, we had two strengths. No. 1 was pitching and No. 2 was our defense. When we lose Kirk McCaskill and John Candelaria and we don’t find anybody to fill the fifth spot, all of sudden, we had to rely on two starters. And that didn’t work out.

“In the bullpen, Donnie Moore went down and Gary Lucas was searching to find himself. Besides DeWayne, nobody was taking the reins. Our No. 1 strength had become a major weakness.”

During that trip, the Angels lost games by scores of 8-6, 8-7, 7-2 and 9-3. The pitchers admit to having hit their low-water mark.

“We were so uncertain and unsettled at that time,” Lucas said. “We were trying a lot of different people in different roles, still trying to see what they could do.

“We had just moved Willie (Fraser) out of the bullpen. We had a couple of kids named Bryan Harvey and Miguel Garcia. I was struggling, DeWayne was a rookie, still trying to establish himself. Our personnel was very unsettled then.

“Now, most of our people are healthy. We’re doing what we’re capable of.”

The new and supposedly improved Angels took two of three from Toronto last week, split a pair with New York but lost three straight to Baltimore. The Orioles may be hopelessly buried in the AL East, but have tormented the Angels for years. California hasn’t won a season series from Baltimore since 1978.

“I think we play Toronto very well, but we don’t play Baltimore at all,” DeCinces said. “Baltimore beats us with the home run. We don’t seem to get into a position against them where the home run won’t hurt us. Whenever they need a two-run home run, they get one.”

The Angels’ visit to Baltimore in May was a good example. The Orioles hit six home runs in an 8-7 victory in 12 innings on May 28. Fraser, the starting pitcher, served up four homers and Buice allowed two to Mike Young in the 10th and 12th innings.

“We had that game won three different times and we still lost it,” DeCinces said.

One facet the Angels still lack, according to DeCinces, is the ability to come from behind. In 1986, the Angels’ road to the division championship was lined with late-inning victories, but this year, the club is 4-55 in games in which it has trailed after seven innings.

“If we were anywhere close to being halfway decent in the late innings, we’d be right there,” DeCinces said. “We did it last year, but last year, we had a different team. There was a different composition, a different overall mental spirit.”

Translation: The Angels had more veteran players in 1986.

The addition of Buckner and Armas was an attempt to correct that deficit but DeCinces asks: “Why didn’t we have them all year?

“All during the off-season, the idea here was to get rid of the veterans. I didn’t think I’d be back. Now, we’re in a pennant race and they start thinking, ‘Maybe we should go out and get some veterans.’ ”

So, it will be an older Angel team that ventures into the East a second time around. Wiser, too?

“This is a new road trip,” Buice said. “Anything can happen. We seem to play pretty good against good competition and poorly against poor competition. Well, these are good teams.

“If we can go on the road and play .500 ball, we’ll be all right. Heck, if we go out and play like we can, we can play .750 ball.”

Considering what has happened before, the Angels will probably settle for .400 ball over the next 10 games.