Bichette Homer, Double Lead Angels, 12-6 : Baseball: Langston leaves game in fourth inning with injury Team comes back in 11th.

They had lost their starting pitcher and their starting shortstop to injuries, and by the end of the fourth inning Thursday, the Angels had lost a most of a five-run lead, too.

“It was like two different games, almost,” said Angel left fielder Dante Bichette. “It was one of those weird ones.”

Blame it on the full moon, which watched over an eerily silent Yankee Stadium as the Angels scored six times in the 11th inning to wrest a 12-6 victory from the Yankees and take two games in their three-game series.

Perhaps only a full moon can explain the umpires’ reversal of a home-run call in the first inning on a drive hit down the right-field line by Yankee left fielder Jim Leyritz. Angel starter Mark Langston and Manager Doug Rader immediately contested the call, and the three-man umpiring crew--a man short while Dale Ford tended to “personal business”--conferred and produced that rarity of rarities, taking away what would have been a two-run home run that would have cut in half a 4-0 Angel lead.

“The net sticks out two, three feet and if it was close, it should have hit the net,” said Langston, who left in the fourth inning after straining his right lower back, an injury that isn’t considered serious but will be re-evaluated in Baltimore today. “The first-base umpire (Jim Evans) said it was fair and then said he’d get help from the home-plate umpire, but he said he was watching the runner (Steve Sax). The second base umpire (Tim Welke) made the call. I felt it was the proper call.”

“I signaled fair,” Evans said. “It looked fair, but I was bothered by the glare of the lights . . . Welke convinced me. He had a better shot. It was very clear to Tim that it was foul.”

It wasn’t as clear to the Yankees. “In 25 years of baseball, that’s the only time I’ve seen the second-base umpire make a fair or foul call,” said Yankee Manager Stump Merrill, who was ejected for protesting and was joined in exile by first-base coach Mike Ferraro and Leyritz. “That’s the only thing I’m going to say. My hands are tied.”

Although the Angels took a 5-0 lead against Chuck Cary, who gave up hits to seven of the 11 men he faced and walked another, the Yankees came back with four in the fourth inning against Langston and tied the game in the fifth on an unearned run that resulted from an error by Jack Howell, who was thrown in at shortstop for the first time since his freshman year of college after Kent Anderson felt tightness in his hamstring in the first inning.

Steve Balboni’s homer to left off Greg Minton in the seventh gave the Yankees a 6-5 lead, but Bichette matched that with a homer to left with one out in the ninth inning. Bichette drove in the tiebreaking run in the 11th off Lee Guetterman (9-5) with a double, which followed singles by Dave Winfield and Brian Downing.

“It’s just a matter of my getting a chance to play. When I play, I’m going to produce,” said Bichette, who has 18 hits in his last 49 at-bats to bring his average to .263 from .230 on July 29. “I have shortened my stride a little bit and that’s helped. . . . I just want an everyday job somewhere next season.”

The Angels’ middle and late relievers did a solid job, with Bob McClure (1-0) getting his first victory since last Sept. 12.

“They’ll probably be able to tell better how it is (this morning) when I get up,” Langston said. “I felt bad that we scored a lot of runs and I let that team come back.

I felt bad we had to play as long as we did, but as long as we won, that’s the positive side.”

Angel Notes

Chili Davis was again unable to play because of a stiff back. According to trainer Ned Bergert, injured players have lost a total of 796 man-games this season. . . . Bryan Harvey had allowed two earned runs in 19 2/3 innings through Wednesday and not three runs, as was reported.