Doubt Goes Early in Langston Loss

The Angels hoped they had signed a 20-game winner when they agreed to pay Mark Langston $16 million over five years last winter. Instead, they could have a 20-game loser.

Admittedly excited about his second visit to the Kingdome to face his former Seattle Mariner teammates, Langston was as prepared as he had ever been for a game. But he wasn’t ready for his dismal performance Friday night, as he gave up six runs in 2 2/3 innings as the Mariners rocked him and rolled past the Angels, 8-1.

“I had better stuff tonight than the last time I pitched here,” he said, referring to a 2-1 loss July 11. “I had better stuff than I had my last couple starts. I was very pumped up for this game. I was ready to turn it around tonight and it didn’t work out.”

Instead, the Mariners collected seven hits off Langston in sending him to his eighthconsecutive defeat and the Angels’ fifth in their last six games. Erik Hanson (11-8) and Gene Harris held the Angels to four hits as the club’s record fell to 1-4 halfway through its 10-game, three-city trip.

“We were flat and got off to a bad start and it was compounded. That’s it,” second baseman Johnny Ray said.

Continuing a flurry of transactions, the Angels announced after the game they had optioned third baseman Jack Howell to Edmonton and recalled infielder Kent Anderson. Howell had five hits in his last 35 at-bats to reduce his batting average to .208. Anderson, who was sent to Edmonton on June 30, hit .271 in 18 games with the Trappers and had seven RBIs. That’s six more RBIs than he produced for the Angels in 30 games before he was sent out.

They also recalled center fielder Devon White, sending out relief pitcher Scott Bailes.

Winless in 10 starts and eight decisions, since a 6-4 victory at Kansas City on June 5, Langston’s 4-13 record puts him on track for the Angel record of 19 losses, set in 1973 by Clyde Wright and matched a year later by Frank Tanana. Perhaps most disheartening for the 29-year-old left-hander is that each of his past two starts has lasted a mere 2 2/3 innings and has been marked by surrendering six runs. In his last six starts, he has given up 29 earned runs over 35 innings, an earned-run average of 7.46.

Seattle, which Langston no-hit for seven innings on April 11 for his first Angel victory, batted around and scored four times in the first, an inning highlighted by Jeffrey Leonard’s two-run double. Edgar Martinez added a home run in the third, and Omar Vizquel drove in the final run off Langston with a double to right, sending him to the dugout to the accompaniment of a chorus of boos and derisive cheers.

“I’ve never heard them like that,” Langston said of the fans.

Then again, he’s never pitched like this. “It’s a gut-check,” he said of his streak. “I’ve never experienced anything like this, and it’s very, very frustrating. I want to help this team, and I felt I would be able to help this team when I came here. . . .

“I didn’t work ahead very well, and for me to be effective and my pitches to work, I have to work ahead in the count. Then I can be aggressive. If I’m ahead two strikes, then I have some room to mess around. I threw some very good sliders tonight, but they laid off. They were going to make me throw strikes.”

He didn’t throw many. “If you get behind, location becomes everything,” catcher Lance Parrish said. “He’s certainly not fooling people at this point, so he has to concentrate on his location. He’s got good stuff. Most of the time a guy with stuff like that can get by with it.”

Bad as his ordeal has been--and on Friday he acknowledged how he has tossed and turned and replayed losses in his mind--Langston is determined not to be beaten mentally. “I don’t thinkmechanically there’s too much more I can do,” he said. “I made one adjustment (in hisdelivery) that was a good adjustment. I just somehow have to break through. I will never givein. I will not give in.”

Angel Notes

After outfielder Devon White was recalled from triple-A Edmonton late Thursday, he was in Friday’s original lineup but scratched because of stiffness in his lower back.

“I did a little soul-searching,” White said of his 14-game Edmonton stint, which began when he was optioned on July 6. “I went down there and I did what I had to do. . . . I took a lot of extra batting practice and before I left, (Dave) Winfield gave me some pointers.” White hit .364 with four doubles, four triples and six RBIs in Edmonton after hitting .213 for the Angels.

Bailes, who will make four or five starts for Edmonton, took the news well. “Everyone knows I need to get in some innings, and the way it’s been going I wasn’t going to get them in here,” said the 27-year-old left-hander, whose earned-run average had jumped to 6.37. “I was tense out there. When they told me, it felt like 500 pounds had been taken off my shoulders.”

The Angels hired Tony Seigle, former vice president of player personnel for the Padres, to handle special assignments regarding scouting and player personnel. Seigle has also worked for the Phillies, Brewers and Astros.

Reliever Mark Eichhorn, who has given up 16 earned runs in 9 1/3 innings in 10 appearances since June 21, attributed his woes to bad habits he fell into after his successful start. “Because I’m not pitching as often as earlier, I got in a couple of mechanical ruts,” he said. “I’ve looked at tapes and hopefully I can correct a few things.” . . . Jim Abbott is featured as “One of baseball’s most eligible bachelors” in the August issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. The article, entitled, “Baseball’s most gorgeous hunks,” describes Abbott as “tall, bright-eyed, strong and brave.” Abbott took considerable kidding about it from his teammates. “It’s a good thing they wrote about him because he needs all the help he can get,” Chuck Finley said.