A Low-Key Approach Belies Determination : Angels: Jack Howell may not show it, but he gets frustrated when his bat isn’t contributing as much as his glove.

Throwing helmets or bats to vent frustration is not Jack Howell’s style. The Angel third baseman prefers to keep his feelings to himself.

“He doesn’t say much, but he thinks a lot,” Angel hitting instructor Deron Johnson said. “He’s a thinker.”

Thinking that he wasn’t contributing has nagged Howell in recent weeks. He has endured a one-for-26 slide that sent his batting average plummeting from .292 April 29 to .200 Saturday and led to him being removed in the lineup against tough left-handed relievers such as the New York Yankees’ Dave Righetti.

Though he is more noted for his fielding than his hitting--Howell’s .974 fielding average last season was the best among major league third basemen, but his .228 batting average was the lowest of his career--Howell ached to regain the touch that he had found during spring training and the first two weeks of the season when he went six for 15.

“It’s not because I haven’t tried,” he said.

His determination paid off against Boston Sunday, when Howell went two for four and drove in two runs for a team that was starved for run production and still digesting Bert Blyleven’s criticism of the offense Saturday.

“You can only go so far until you hit the breaking point,” said Howell, who is hitting .213 with nine runs batted in as the Angels begin an eight-game trip tonight in Milwaukee. Curiously enough, given his career .179 average against left-handers, he’s hitting .250 this season (six for 24) against lefties and .200 (13 for 65) against right-handers.

“It’s been frustrating, the slump I’ve been in the last two or three weeks,” Howell said. “The last few games, I was swinging the bat well but had nothing to show for it. It tends to get frustrating. That’s what everybody here’s been going through.”

Blyleven chose to work off his anger in a public statement, an avenue Howell isn’t likely to choose. But he couldn’t dispute the accuracy of the message.

“I was brought up to believe that you can’t argue with the truth and that’s definitely the truth,” Howell said.

That the Angels scored more runs in their 8-4 victory over Boston Sunday than in their previous four games combined doesn’t mean their problems are over. In the same vein, Howell knows that one productive day doesn’t mean he soon will be a .300 hitter. But Howell saw the team’s success and his own Sunday as a start toward regaining equilibrium and fulfilling their potential.

“It feels good to contribute,” said Howell, who had 20 home runs last season, the second-highest total on the team, but also struck out 125 times, second only to Devon White.

“When you’re nine games under .500, you don’t think if you come out and win today you’ll be at .500,” Howell said. “The bottom line is that in the next week, week and a half, we have to go out and play good ball. To say we’re going to win 20 in a row is unrealistic. We just have to play as well as we can.

“The bottom line is, if we’re going to win this thing, each individual has to do his job, and if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”

Angel Manager Doug Rader knew that Howell was agonizing during his slump, despite presenting a quiet front.

“As hard-crusted . . . competitive as most of us are, we’ve got very thin skins and are sensitive and it doesn’t take much for us to lose faith in what we’re doing,” said Rader. “If you don’t experience a certain degree of success and contribute, it just continually lowers your sense of self-worth. It seems like a never-ending spiral.”

Rader doesn’t consider Howell’s offensive output secondary to his defensive play.

“It’s vitally important to contribute offensively, to feel that you’re part of the program and pulling your weight,” Rader said. “It’s important no matter who you are and where you play.”

Howell has made five errors at third in 28 games this season, including errors in three consecutive games for the first time in his career last week. He made only 11 errors last season. However, injuries have unsettled the Angels’ infield this season and have kept shortstop Dick Schofield--another defensive stalwart--out of the lineup entirely.

“You could go four months and play great and then you go through a little period where you get a couple of tough hops,” Howell said. “Then you could go the next month and not make one (error). It’s tough to talk about because you play 130 games and there are so many different situations . . .

“(Winning a Gold Glove) is something I don’t have control over. The only thing I can control is the figures I put up. The bottom line is the lowest number of errors and that I led both leagues in fielding percentage. There’s still a lot of things other than the error total to think of when you’re out there.”

Howell didn’t consider it an insult when Rader had him bat ninth against Boston Sunday. “The next day, I might be hitting fourth,” Howell said. “I just want to do the best I can and do whatever it takes to get us going. . . . We aren’t looking at the standings. Right now, we have to deal with the thing at hand, and that’s obviously that we have to start winning some ballgames and start producing some hits and runs.

“Never in my career have I given up and I never plan on giving up.”

Angel Notes

The Angels recalled right-hander Willie Fraser Monday from triple-A Edmonton and optioned left-hander Cliff Young to the Trappers. Fraser, 25, was optioned to Edmonton April 30 when the Angels reduced their rosters to 25. He was 1-0 with a 3.21 earned-run average in three appearances with the Trappers and was 1-0 with an 11.81 ERA in six outings with the Angels. Young, who was recalled May 12, did not pitch for the Angels. . . . Dante Bichette leads the team with 18 RBIs, but only four of those have come on the road. . . . Wally Joyner has an eight-game hitting streak and is 11 for 24 (.458) in that span. . . . Lance Parrish has 14 hits in his last 41 at-bats (.341). . . . Devon White is one for 17 over his last five games and two for 21 over six. . . . Kent Anderson, who has played in 22 games, has yet to drive in a run this season.