You Can’t Beat ‘Em? Join ‘Em : Baseball: Polonia becomes an Angel after they defeat his former team, the Yankees, 4-3. Washington, Monteleone go to New York in trade.

What was a defeat for Luis Polonia when he wore New York Yankee pinstripes Sunday is now a victory.

Polonia walked into the losing clubhouse after the Angels held off the Yankees in a 4-3 triumph, but he became an occupant of the winning clubhouse minutes later when the Yankees announced they had traded him to the Angels in exchange for outfielder Claudell Washington and triple-A pitcher Rich Monteleone.

“I lost today,” Polonia said, “but tomorrow morning, when I pick up the newspaper, I won.”

The Angels believe they gained a capable leadoff hitter who can generate offense and take the extra base they have lacked. Despite getting 12 hits Sunday, the Angels rank last in the American League in team batting at .232 and next-to-last in stolen bases with six.

“He’s certainly not expected to be the one man who turns our whole situation around,” General Manager Mike Port said of Polonia, who won’t join the Angels in Baltimore until Tuesday or Wednesday because of family matters. “Certainly, there are other fellows yet to perform to their capabilities, but he stands as an important piece of the puzzle for us.”

Port said that neither player’s legal entanglements influenced the deal. Washington’s estranged wife, Cynthia, told police she intends to press charges of spousal battery against the 35-year-old outfielder stemming from an April 18 incident. Polonia, 25, served 27 days in jail in the off-season after he was convicted of having sex with a minor in Milwaukee during a Yankee trip last season.

“To my knowledge, that is something in the past,” Port said. “The details have all been properly attended to. There may be probation, but I don’t know of anything that would interrupt his service with us.”

Port was happy to make a trade without depleting the Angels’ pitching, which was well represented Sunday by Mark Langston’s six-inning, two-run performance and Mark Eichhorn’s two solid relief innings. Monteleone, 27, did not figure in the Angels’ plans. He was 2-2 last season and is 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA with Edmonton.

“It leaves that part (pitching) of our club intact for the moment, which leaves us the capability down the line of still doing something with our pitching surplus,” said Port, whose talks with Yankee Vice President George Bradley solidified Friday.

“We just came up with a match in terms of what we were looking for--someone with offensive leadoff capabilities--and the Yankees were looking for somebody who can bat from the left side and is probably better served hitting two-three-five (in the order), something like that.”

Washington played for the Yankees from 1986-88 and signed with the Angels only when New York wouldn’t give him the three-year contract he wanted. He had heard trade rumors and was puzzled when he saw he was in the Angels’ lineup against left-hander Dave LaPoint. Washington drove in the decisive run in the third inning Sunday with a single off LaPoint (1-2), and fielded Mel Hall’s ninth-inning double cleanly, preventing Steve Sax from scoring the tying run.

Washington is hitting .176.

“It could have rattled a little more,” he said of Hall’s double. “I could have stumbled. . . . I was happy where I was on the West Coast, but I’m not going to give up and not play hard for the Yankees.

“The handwriting was on the wall because I hadn’t been playing against right-handers. I didn’t (have time to show what he could do), but I don’t have time to worry about that. I guess they didn’t want to give quality playing time to a player they had no intention of keeping. . . . I thought when we got back to the West Coast (next week) something would happen. I guess that’s another sign I missed.”

Polonia, who began his career with the Oakland Athletics, missed playing on the West Coast. Blessed with speed but weak defensively, he has a career batting average of .294 and 76 stolen bases in slightly less than three major league seasons. The Yankee outfield glut limited him to only 11 games this season, strictly as a designated hitter. He is hitting .319 and, important, has struck out only once.

Angel Manager Doug Rader, who on Saturday declared Chili Davis too much a defensive liability to play left field, may use Polonia as the DH or in left field. All that’s certain is Polonia will hit leadoff, officially ending the project of making a reluctant Devon White hit there.

“We needed a leadoff man and he comes as close to filling that role as anybody we’ve had as long as I’ve been here,” said Rader, whose club ended a three-game losing streak by capitalizing on an error and a passed ball in the sixth inning for three unearned runs. “From what I understand, he’s fearless and there’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to adjust to left-handed pitchers.”

Polonia, who was traded to the Yankees on June 21, 1989, with Greg Cadaret and Eric Plunk for Rickey Henderson, promised to energize the Angels’ listless offense.

“I know I’m going to help this team. I’m a guy who can get on base, steal bases and set up a big inning,” Polonia said in the Angels’ clubhouse, where he met some of his new teammates. “I know I can be a big plus for this team like I was for the Oakland A’s . . . This is a pretty good club. I don’t think anybody has pitching like this. Now that I’m part of this team, I think we have a pretty good team and I’m pretty sure we’ll be there in the end.”

Angel Notes

Bryan Harvey pitched the ninth and barely earned his second save. He gave up a walk, a single, a run-scoring single to Steve Sax and a run-scoring double to Mel Hall with two out before walking Don Mattingly intentionally and getting Steve Balboni to fly out to deep center. “It wasn’t boring,” said Harvey, who failed to save a victory for Jim Abbott Thursday in Boston. “I make games exciting when I pitch. You get your money’s worth, but I want to stop that.” Harvey has had swelling and stiffness between the fourth and fifth fingers on his pitching hand on cold days. However, he said he’s in no pain. “I don’t think I can blame (his struggles) on my hand,” he said.

An 18-minute rain delay in the top of the seventh contributed toward an early exit for Mark Langston (2-1). He allowed hits to Rick Cerone and Randy Velarde in the bottom of the inning and was promptly relieved by Mark Eichhorn. Cerone scored on Sax’s grounder to the right side, the first inherited runner Eichhorn allowed to score after stranding 13.

Day One of Manager Doug Rader’s modified platoon system saw Mark McLemore playing second base instead of Johnny Ray and Chili Davis at DH instead of in left field.