If It’s a Stolen Base, You Can Bet It’s Pettis : Rangers: Texas center fielder has a field day on the basepaths, stealing second three times and frustrating Langston.

Mark Langston was ever so mindful of Gary Pettis. Not that it mattered.

One minute, Pettis was taking a lead off of first, in front of Langston.

The next, he was dancing off of second behind Langston.

“It’s Gary Pettis,” Langston said Sunday after Pettis stole second three times in the Angels’ 2-1 loss to Texas. “What are you going to do?”

What Langston did was try to keep tabs on Pettis, who stole 56 bases as an Angel in 1985 and is the only Angel to steal at least 40 bases in three different seasons.

Langston tried to keep Pettis close. He checked him at first, but Pettis stole second anyway. He tried again and again to pick him off at second. No luck.

By the time Langston left the game after eight innings, he had thrown 140 pitches, a number that didn’t account for the dozen or so pickoff attempts on Pettis.

Pettis reached base three times--twice on walks--and stole second every time, raising his season total to 19, second in the American League to Rickey Henderson’s 27.

The steals might have seemed a small and proud retort from the outfielder the Angels traded to Detroit for pitcher Dan Petry in 1987, the better to make way for Devon White, then 24.

But Pettis said that is not particularly so.

“I don’t take any more pride in beating them than any other team,” he said. “The first year, once I was traded, I wanted to make sure I did something to beat them. As the years pass, you realize you can’t just worry about one team, you need to beat them all.”

Pettis got the better of the Angels Sunday, scoring a run in the third inning that became the game-winner.

“The only mistake (Langston) made was on the only guy you can’t let get on base once, let alone twice,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said.

It was the second time that cost.

With the Rangers leading, 1-0, with one out in the third, Langston faced Pettis, who had singled in the first and stole second, only to get caught in a well-executed rundown between second and third on Jack Daugherty’s fielder’s choice bunt.

Seeing Pettis again, Langston pitched him up and in, trying to force him off the plate. He ended up walking him. Pettis promptly stole second with Daugherty at bat.

Three times, second baseman Donnie Hill moved to the bag to pick him off. Three times, Langston’s throw was not in time. Langston gave Pettis one last look and then threw a pitch by Daugherty for a called strike three.

“They made some pretty good attempts at pickoffs at second,” Pettis said. “They made me work. They threw more than I expected them to.”

They had less luck than they would have liked.

With two out, Langston walked Julio Franco on four pitches. But then he gave up a single to Ruben Sierra that drove in Pettis for a 2-0 lead that was unchanged until Dave Winfield’s solo home run in the ninth.

“I tried to keep (Pettis) as close as possible,” Langston said. “I obviously would have loved to have picked him off, but he got me. Gary Pettis is one of the best baserunners in the game. You just try to keep him as close as you can.”

Langston, a left-hander, is known for his good pickoff move. But he also has a high leg kick that contributes to a slower delivery. That was the opening Pettis needed.

“Mark’s got a little slower move to the plate, and good runners are going to take advantage of that,” said Lance Parrish, the Angel catcher. “To stop someone like Gary Pettis, you’ve got to speed it up.”

Parrish had thrown out 14 of 27 runners on steal attempts this season, but he went zero for three Sunday.

“He’s definitely got the ability to steal bases, but he’s not invincible,” Parrish said.

Texas Manager Bobby Valentine said he has encouraged Pettis to run more. It has helped that Pettis has been hitting lately.

He batted just .208 in 1987 before the Angels traded him, and has struck out more than 100 times in five different seasons.

But over the past 14 games, he is 14 for 42, improving his average from .198 to .231.

“He’s been on base a lot more,” Valentine said. “There’s a direct correlation.”

As for the correlation between stealing three bases and playing in Anaheim Stadium, Pettis insists there is none.

“I can understand what happened to me here,” Pettis said. “It was unfortunate it had to happen that way . . . They did what they felt they had to do. I guess that’s the way you look at it. It’s a job for us, and a business for them, I guess.”