Angel Langston Stuck on Wrong Side of 2-1

Mark Langston had another long and laudable performance for the Angels Wednesday night. Once again, he reached double figures in strikeouts and was stingy in doling out runs.

And once again, he had another 2-1 defeat, this time to the Chicago White Sox in Comiskey Park. It was the third consecutive start by Langston that the Angels have lost by that score.

Langston (4-7) struck out 10 to give him 33 in the last three games, but in each of those games the Angels have given him only a solo home run as a cushion.

In his last three games, Langston has two losses and a no-decision to show for a 1.50 earned-run average.

“The effort was there. The performance was there. We haven’t been scoring runs for him,” Manager Doug Rader said after the Angels finished their trip with a 3-3 record. “Mark Langston can go to bed with a clear conscience, there’s no question about that.”

Langston gave up a run in the third inning on a single and a stolen base by Ozzie Guillen and a run-scoring single by Dave Gallagher.

The Angels matched it in the fifth on Rick Schu’s leadoff home run to center, but Sammy Sosa decided it in the bottom of the inning when he hit a 3-and-2 pitch over the left-field fence near the 382-foot sign.

Langston chose to go without answering reporters’ questions. “I have no comments,” he said as he dashed to dress and climb aboard the bus that would transport the Angels to O’Hare Airport for their charter flight back to California.

Pitching coach Marcel Lachemann, who might know him best, said the 29-year-old left-hander is handling his frustration well.

Langston has only one victory in his last seven starts, despite pitching into the seventh inning or later.

“He realizes it’s a long season and that somewhere along the line he’s going to win a game, 8-6,” Lachemann said. “You pitch like that, you’re going to win.”

Not always, and not when the White Sox trotted out three pitchers who held the Angels to five hits. Barry Jones, brought into the game after Greg Hibbard issued two walks in the fifth, improved his record to 8-1 with 2 1/3 strong relief innings. Bobby Thigpen finished with two hitless innings, earning his 22nd save to tie Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley for the major league lead.

In his determination to end Chicago’s five-game losing streak, Manager Jeff Torborg met with his coaches and players before the game to reinforce confidence that had been dented by three losses to Oakland and two to the Angels.

“I said to my coaches before the game, ‘I want to play this like it’s the World Series. Throw all caution to the wind with our pitchers,’ ” said Torborg, a former Angel catcher.

“In our team meeting, we talked about how guys have got to pick each other up. Sammy gets picked off first base (in the first) and drops that ball, but hits the home run. Ozzie (Guillen) was caught stealing (in the fifth, before Sosa’s home run) but Ozzie made that great play at the plate.”

That was in the third inning when Schu reached third after Sosa dropped his fly ball in right field for an error.

Hoping to give the Angels an early lead, Schu was prepared to take off if Kent Anderson hit the ball to Scott Fletcher at second base or Guillen at shortstop, who were playing at medium depth.

Anderson hit a bouncer to short. Schu ran. Guillen’s throw went home, arriving in plenty of time for catcher Ron Karkovice’s tag.

“He made a good play to get me,” Schu said. “Ozzie’s one of the best. What can you do?

“Mark’s been pitching great. It’s not like we’re not trying to score runs.

“It’s a long year. We’ll pick him up a few times. These things go in cycles. Before the end of the year, we’re going to pick him up a few times, I’m sure.”

Had Schu held at third on Anderson’s grounder, he might have scored on Devon White’s subsequent fly to center and changed the course of the game.

Angel notes

A hearing on the Angels’ complaint about the Yankees’ conduct after the Dave Winfield-Mike Witt trade has been scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday at the office of Commissioner Fay Vincent. The Angels will be represented by General Manager Mike Port and Dan O’Brien, their senior vice president for baseball operations.

Catcher Bill Schroeder, whose rehabilitation assignment to Class-A Palm Springs last month was cut short by elbow problems, will return there later this week. “I haven’t felt this good in a while,” he said. “I’m not dead yet.” . . . Kirk McCaskill reported no difficulties with his elbow after pitching five innings Tuesday. McCaskill missed two starts this season because of a bone spur in his right elbow.