Henderson Can’t Steal This One : Baseball: Oakland star falls short of Brett in batting race. Angels beat A’s in finale, 11-6.

George Brett turned the American League batting race into a game of hide and seek when he chose to hide from Rickey Henderson and seek his third title by sitting on his lead and starting only two of the Royals’ last six games.

Henderson lost that contest, but he focused on the bigger prizes at stake for him and the Oakland Athletics in the playoffs once the formality of their regular-season-ending 11-6 loss to the Angels was behind them.

Brett had a single in his only official at-bat to raise his average to .329, forcing Henderson to go three for three or better to win. Henderson struck out in the first inning, singled in the second and grounded into a force play in the fourth before being removed from the lineup with a .325 average.

Had he triumphed, the A’s would have had both league batting champions, since Willie McGee won the National League title by seven points over Dave Magadan of the New York Mets. McGee hit .335 for St. Louis before he was traded to Oakland Aug. 29.

“I wouldn’t have done it the way (Brett) did it,” said Henderson, who is two steals short of Lou Brock’s record of 938. “He’s a great player, but I would have played through. . . . It’s not really a disappointment. I didn’t win the title but I feel I had an MVP kind of year.”

Mike Moore (13-15), scheduled to start the A’s third playoff game, ended an inconsistent year by being raked for seven runs in 3 1/3 innings by an Angel lineup that featured few regulars. The Angels finished with 80 victories, well short of their 91-71 record in 1989.

Angel Notes

Cliff Young pitched 3 1/3 innings to get his first major league victory. . . . The Angels (80-82) finished below .500 for the 19th time in 30 seasons. . . . Dave Winfield, who turned 39 Wednesday, finished with 78 runs batted in and a .267 average.