Langston Has Sights Set Ahead : Angels: After going 10-17 in his first season with the team, the left-hander says he will simply take things one pitch at a time.

If the eyes are the windows of the soul, Mark Langston’s soul is carefully hidden behind blue shutters.

Through the worst days of his often dreadful first Angel season, the days he was chewed up and spit out after 2 2/3 innings or, worse still, the days he pitched brilliantly but received little offensive support, never once did those blue eyes flash in anger in front of television cameras or reporters.

Never once, as he flailed toward a 10-17 record and an earned-run average of 4.40, was he seen kicking a bench or a water cooler.

According to a book by Dick Williams, who managed him when both were with the Seattle Mariners, Langston is a “gutless wonder.”

Not even that jab ruffles the 30-year-old left-hander. Being cool, he says, doesn’t mean he is uncaring. He simply feels no obligation to display his feelings to the world.

“I do my share of yelling and screaming and throwing things, but I do it in a situation where it’s not visible,” Langston said. “I want to stay under control.”

If his control on the mound had been as precise last season as his control of his emotions, Langston would have had a nearly ideal life.

Three times the American League’s strikeout leader, Langston was the grand prize in the 1989 free-agent stakes. He signed a four-year, $16-million contract with the Angels, a hefty price for a pitcher with a lifetime 86-76 record but a gamble readily taken by a franchise seeking its first pennant in 30 years of existence.

The dream he was living proceeded nicely and had a perfect beginning. A no-hit beginning, as Langston pitched seven hitless innings against Seattle April 11 in his first Angel start. Mike Witt finished the no-hitter and Langston’s name was in the Angels’ record books almost before the ink had dried on his contract.

“Early in the game, I was all over the place,” said Langston, who walked four and struck out three in that 1-0 victory at Anaheim Stadium. “I was fortunate. They might have had a hit in one or two situations. It was nice, very nice, to get that under my belt. I would have liked to have continued like that.”

All that continued was the Angels’ inability to score runs for him.

Langston was 4-5 on June 10 when he faced the Texas Rangers. Although he gave up only two earned runs in eight innings and struck out 12, he lost, 2-1. In his next start, he gave up only one earned run and struck out 11 in eight innings at Detroit, but got no decision in the Angels’ 2-1, 10-inning defeat.

June 20: Ten strikeouts and two unearned runs in eight innings at Chicago and another 2-1 defeat.

June 25: Four strikeouts and two unearned runs in eight innings against the White Sox at Anaheim Stadium, and a 2-0 loss.

That’s six earned runs and 37 strikeouts in 32 innings, and nothing to show for it but three defeats and a no-decision. And no tantrums.

“That’s part of baseball,” he said. “I’m not the first guy ever to lose 2-1 ballgames. I’ve won my share of 2-1 and 1-0 games. Believe me, I was not satisfied. Even if you pitch halfway decent, you’re never satisfied when you lose.”

But soon, his performances weren’t halfway decent. Three times in five starts in late July and August, Langston lasted only 2 2/3 innings. Between June 10 and Aug. 12 he was 1-10 with two no-decisions.

He was baffled, he was frustrated. He could cite the inordinate number of two-out runs he gave up--51% of his total for the season--and say he needed to bear down, and he could say he needed to cut down his walks, 104 in 223 innings. He insists his difficulty wasn’t caused by the pressure of his hefty contract or because he didn’t want to win.

“I never once tried to be a $3-million pitcher,” he said. “It’s more of a media issue. I never, ever, felt I had to do something to try and prove myself. It was my sixth year, I had some good years under my belt and I felt I had established myself on the major league level. . . .

“Confidence plays such an important role in this game. I had four or five games when I was hit hard, and for some reason I wasn’t able to clear them out of my mind. I started to become a defensive pitcher instead of an aggressive, offensive pitcher. It was very frustrating.”

Those frustrations became apparent to his teammates, but in subtle ways.

“When he was going through that time when he was struggling to get people out, you could sense his frustration with the way he was being inconsistent with his pitches,” catcher Lance Parrish said. “He started pressing a little bit, rushing, trying to make things happen. He was losing those games and it was tough on him.”

Pitching coach Marcel Lachemann saw the same thing.

“We weren’t winning and he was pitching relatively well,” he said. “Frustration is good. He wants to win. He’s not looking to pitch well, then lose.

“In the course of a season, anybody is going to have a bad stretch. You start to feel like you’re in a hole and trying to climb out. Instead of trying to do it one step at a time, you’re four or five games under .500 and you want to get to .500 right away. That’s what he got into.”

Said Langston, “Lach and I talked about how if I’d have won three of four or two of four in that stretch of close games and then had a bad start, it might have been easier to erase the bad starts and turn things around. This is a game of confidence. You think about the games you get hit hard. I was 4-9 instead of 6-4.”

His defeats reawakened questions about his competitiveness, which were raised by Williams in the former manager’s book, “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” Williams recalled a 1987 game when Langston took a two-hitter into the ninth inning against Minnesota and gave up a hit and a walk to weak hitters because Langston “was giving up. Because he was tired. Because he wasn’t tough enough.

“How did I know this? Because all season he had been taking himself out of games. He’d walk past me in the dugout after an inning and say, ‘I’ve had it,’ and be gone. Just like that. No regard for his teammates. And worse, no regard for winning.”

After Langston yielded a home run to Steve Lombardozzi in that 1987 game, Williams took him out without looking the pitcher in the eye because, he wrote, “I was too embarrassed for the great game of baseball and the art of competing. For the rest of my time in Seattle, I perceived Langston as I feel much of baseball finally perceived him after he cost the Montreal Expos the pennant in the summer of 1989 by choking on his final few starts.

“Gutless, that’s how I perceived him. Gutless. Anybody could pitch for a loser, which Langston did very well for the Mariners before I arrived, but let’s see you pitch for a winner. That’s the sign of a true competitor, which Langston is not. And I don’t care how many saddlebags Gene Autry dumped on his head to sign with the Angels in the winter of 1989. C’mon, Langston. Let’s see you pitch for a winner. Let’s see you be a winner.”

Williams, now a scout for the San Diego Padres, declined this week to discuss Langston again. Langston was polite but impassive in discussing Williams.

“I really don’t have any comments toward Dick Williams’ book,” he said. “I know deep down inside, I work very hard and I’m a serious competitor when I take the mound.”

Angel Manager Doug Rader downplayed the validity of Williams’ comments.

“I know Dick Williams, and for some reason he gets great joy in doing that type of thing,” Rader said. “I’m just glad Mark Langston didn’t lower himself and get involved in it in any way. . . .

“Mark Langston doesn’t need to prove anything. All Mark Langston needs to do is be himself and trust his ability, and as a team we’ll win him some ballgames.

“(Langston’s string of defeats in close games) came at a time of year he needed a nice run to build some confidence. The man’s got a great heart and he’s very resilient. He persevered through a very difficult time. It’s a tough thing to go through, but he’s a solid human being. And when you tack on his physical ability, it’s tough not to think he’ll improve. . . . I truly believe his record could have been exactly the opposite if the right things would have taken place.”

Things didn’t go right again for Langston until the last six weeks of the season, when he won five of his last seven decisions. Was the turnaround caused by adjustments he made in the mechanics of his delivery after reviewing tapes of himself from successful seasons? Or was it because by Aug. 15, when he won his sixth game, the Angels were long out of the AL West race?

“Basically, I think he reached a point last season where we obviously were not going to make the playoffs and he wasn’t going to have a good record and he might have come to the conclusion, ‘Why don’t I just relax and do the best I can to give me something to build on?’ ” Parrish said.

“The situation he was in last year, I’m sure everybody could understand the pressure. It was a new organization where he was expected to do well and he signed a big contract. You get him on a team where he’s comfortable and gets run support, he can just pitch. I think he can go out and battle for nine innings no matter what.”

Langston says he has already won his battle against the distractions and doubts that intruded on his consciousness last season.

“I’m definitely going to be a lot more aggressive than last year,” he said. “I had certain things moving around in my mind and I didn’t clear them out. . . .

“I was somewhat fortunate to finish on a positive note. Toward the end of the season I got back on a good roll. But the slate’s clean.

“I used to start playing around with (goals) and it’s too easy to lose your concentration that way. I try to take each game as it approaches and this year we’re simplifying it even more: Each pitch you throw has a purpose. To win 20 games, you’ve got to win the first. To win the first you’ve got to throw strikes. That’s the bottom line.

“My only goal is to win the World Series. I want to win the World Series this year and I think we have a team that can do it. It’s a realistic goal, not a false goal. We have the personality and makeup and talent. It’s there.”