Langston a Winner Again : Angels: Left-hander ends his eight-game losing streak by holding off the Twins in an 11-5 victory at Metrodome.

Never did Mark Langston give in to despair.

There were, during his eight-game losing streak, days that he wondered when the light might break the cloud of futility that enveloped him. Langston’s religious faith lifted those doubts and his faith in his pitching ability carried him past some rough spots Wednesday, when he earned his first victory since June 5 in the Angels’ 11-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome.

“Three starts ago, the game at home, was about as rock bottom as I got,” Langston said, referring to a 2 2/3-inning outing against Cleveland on July 22 in which he allowed six runs. “I’d been pitching good enough to lose, and then I had the blowout game at home and I was very clue-less. I was on my knees (praying) quite a bit that whole night trying to figure it out.

“What answers did I come to? Just don’t give in. Never give in. Each game you’ve got a chance to do it. You can go one direction or the other--give in or battle and come out of it.”

Langston (5-13) battled himself as much as he battled the Twins, slipping back into his dangerous habit of trying to make the perfect pitch instead of the most expedient.

A seven-run lead presented him by his teammates in the third inning gave him some leeway. It was three more runs than they scored in his last four starts combined. He used almost all of it, needing help from Willie Fraser and Bryan Harvey to preserve the victory that put the Angels back in fifth place.

With victories in three of their past four games, the Angels finished a 4-6 trip with renewed self-respect. For no one was that more true than Langston.

“It’s been very flustrating, the whole ordeal,” he said, “but I got a win, and I think I needed to win a game whether it was 1-0 or today’s game. I’ll definitely appreciate wins more than I ever have in my life.”

Langston got over the hump in the fifth when he escaped trouble by showing a resolve he admittedly has lacked.

The Angels finished off Minnesota starter Roy Smith (5-9) by scoring three times in the second and four more in the third. The highlight was Bill Schroeder’s two-run double in the second and Schroeder’s fourth home run of the season in the third. But the Twins, with Langston throwing them mostly fastballs, scored a run in the fourth and added three in the fifth on two singles, a triple by Nelson Liriano and a double by Kirby Puckett to cut the Angels’ lead to 7-4.

Puckett stood on second with none out and the fourth, fifth and sixth hitters coming up, creating a moment of truth for Langston. He knew the game could be determined by his next few pitches, and his determination to win prevailed. Langston got Gene Larkin to fly to left, Brian Harper to right and Kent Hrbek to center.

“I almost played right into their hands,” he said. “Instead of changing speeds and doing the things I’d been doing, I kept throwing harder and harder and they kept hitting it. With a big lead like that, the last thing I wanted to do was let them creep back into the game. I was lucky, basically, that I got out of the inning. It could have been even worse than it was.”

It could have been worse in the eighth, after the Twins cut the Angels’ lead to 8-5 and had runners on first and third with one out. Harvey came in and walked pinch-hitter Randy Bush, but Al Newman hit the first pitch for an inning-ending double play.

Langston’s earned-run average climbed to 4.28. And in his last three games he has given up 16 earned runs in 11 1/3 innings, an ERA of 12.71. That mattered less to him and his teammates than the knowledge that he finally succeeded.

“It’s a start, particularly since he had to sweat it out in the eighth,” Brian Downing said. “He was a hit away from a no-decision. It’s like a hitter in a slump who gets one bloop hit that turns it around--maybe that’ll work for him, too.

“He struggled, but we got him a lot of runs and got him a win for a change. Maybe this is a good omen for him. It’s a big negative off his back.”

Langston is positive he can again learn to enjoy winning. “It’s been awhile, a real long while. I forgot the feeling, to tell you the truth,” he said. “It’s a real good feeling, even as bad as it was. . . . It was ugly, but I’ve got a smile on my face.”

Angel Notes

Angel Manager Doug Rader said the club salvaged what could have been a disastrous trip by winning two of three games in Minnesota. “There were great hopes for this trip because it was very important, as is the home stand,” he said. “The way it started out (losing three of four in Oakland and two of three in Seattle) we did fine, because let’s face it, those first two stops weren’t too good.”

Brian Harper’s fourth-inning double for Minnesota stretched his hitting streak to 22 games, the longest in the American League this season. St. Louis’ Willie McGee also has a 22-game streak. The longest streak in the majors this season was 23 games by the Phillies’ Lenny Dykstra.

In scoring 11 runs Wednesday and 13 on Tuesday, the Angels hit double figures in runs in back-to-back games for the first time since May 21 and 24 of 1989. . . . The Angels hit .296 on this trip (106 for 358) and scored 51 runs, but their pitchers gave up 49 earned runs in 86 1/3 innings, for an earned-run average of 5.11.

Rader said he wasn’t bothered by two runners being caught in rundowns and another thrown out stealing. “It’s important for us to show more outward physical exuberance and be willing to take more chances,” he said.

Luis Polonia’s second-inning single ended his 0-for-13 drought and improved his mood. “If I go 0-for one game I go crazy,” said Polonia, whose two-for-five day raised his average to .302. “And look who it’s against: guys like (Monday’s starter Kevin) Tapani or however you say it. There ain’t no Cy Youngs there. It’s OK if you’re talking (Mark) Gubicza, (Bret) Saberhagen and (Roger) Clemens.” . . . Outfielder Max Venable is hampered by corns on his feet and has not started the past four games.