Angel Slump Continues in Loss to Royals : Petry’s 3-Hit Complete Game Is Wasted in Fifth Straight Defeat, 2-1

Remember that 9-21 finish the Angels reeled off last season, which sent them reeling into the off-season as a disheartened and disjointed last-place club?

Brian Downing does. And after watching the Angel offense sleep-walk through a fifth straight loss Thursday night at Anaheim Stadium--this one a 2-1 defeat by the Kansas City Royals--Downing cautioned against a reprise of the Collapse of ’87 and what it could mean for this team in 1989.

“I think it’s important for us to finish strong because of last year,” Downing said. “We don’t want to give up everything we worked so hard for the last couple of months. It kind of spoils the whole year. Then, you look back and it’s like you were bums all year.”

Amazing as it is to recall, these Angels went 31-11 between June 15 and Aug. 3. Such a run enabled them to erase the skid mark that smudged the first 2 1/2 months of their 1988 schedule.

“Considering the hole we dug for ourselves early on,” Downing said, “we did a lot of great things to come back to where we are now. That’s why the last 2 1/2 weeks are so important. Foul up the last 2 1/2 weeks, and the whole season’s ruined.”

Less than a week ago, the Angels were 4 games above .500 and talking about an 85-win season--which would equal the 1987 regular-season finish of the eventual World Series champions, the Minnesota Twins. “I’d like to win at least 85 games,” Downing had said. “And the bare minimum would be a .500 record, because of the way we fought back.”

Five games later, the Angels are 73-74 and 20 games behind the first-place Oakland A’s for the first time this season. To win 85 games now, the Angels would need to finish 12-3.

Two losses over the weekend in Texas and a three-game sweep by the Royals at Anaheim placed the Angels in such a predicament. Including Charlie Leibrandt’s four-hitter Thursday night, Kansas City pitchers limited the Angels to six runs in the three games.

“We just wasted another good pitching performance,” said Angel Manager Cookie Rojas, alluding to Dan Petry’s three-hit, complete-game effort. “You hold that club to two runs and you’re really doing something.

“We’re just in one of those valleys right now where everybody stops hitting at the same time. When you hold a club like Kansas City to as few runs as we did (a total of 10) in these three games, you should beat that ballclub.”

Instead, the Angels lost all three to the Royals by scores of 4-3, 4-2 and 2-1.

And Thursday night, the first inning was all Kansas City needed to polish off Petry (3-7). A one-out double by Kevin Seitzer, a two-out home run by Pat Tabler . . . and Leibrandt was on his way to evening his record at 12-12.

The Angels managed a run in the bottom of the first, when Downing scored from third on a wild pitch. But from that point on, the Angel lineup amassed three singles--never again advancing a runner as far as second base.

The harbinger for another September letdown, now that the rest of the Angel season has been rendered meaningless by Oakland?

“No,” Downing insisted. “There’s no give-up attitude on this team. It’s the same old story: When you don’t score runs, you’re going to look flat. But there’s no letdown here.”

As opposed to the shameless slide of 1987?

“Last September, we just fell apart,” Downing said. “And, we had major injuries in the pitching staff. This team is nothing like last year’s.

“We’re still going hard. We’re just not hitting at the present time.

“This has happened before, earlier this season, and you just waited for everybody to come around. But we don’t have time to come around now, because time is almost up.”

Angel Notes

Riding the coattails of Oakland’s playoff-bound season, A’s shortstop Walt Weiss has emerged as the unofficial favorite in this year’s American League rookie-of-the-year race, which has moved the Angel publicity staff into action. This week, the Angels mailed off Bryan Harvey fact sheets to columnists and baseball reporters in each AL city, trying to get the word out on the 25-year-old relief pitcher. “A national columnist told me last month that after we fell out of contention in April and May, a lot of people stopped following the Angels--and Harvey was getting overlooked,” said Tim Mead, Angel director of publicity. “I think everyone here remembers how Wally (Joyner) finished second in 1986 (to Oakland’s Jose Canseco), and as a publicity staff, we’re wondering if there wasn’t something we could’ve done to make a difference. We don’t want Harvey to miss out this year just because people haven’t heard about him.” The fact sheet includes a statistical comparison of Weiss and Harvey. Their pertinent statistics, through Sept. 13: Harvey--6-5, 2.07 ERA, 17 saves; Weiss--.244 batting average, 3 home runs, 32 RBIs, 2 stolen bases.

Due to injury, neither starting center fielder finished the game. Kansas City’s Willie Wilson fouled a ball off his foot in the first inning and had to be replaced by Gary Thurman in the bottom of the first. The Angels’ Devon White left in the eighth inning after aggravating a muscle strain in his rib cage. Tony Armas, scratched from the starting lineup because of a swollen right knee, batted for White in the eighth and grounded out. . . . Thursday night marked the 2,000th major league game of George Brett’s career, but it wasn’t one he’ll remember. Brett went 0 for 4 against Dan Petry, managing to hit the ball out of the infield only once.