Angels Are Feeling the Pain : Baseball: Canseco, Dave Henderson hit homers in 3-1 victory that pushes Athletics’ win streak to seven.

There was no use in trying to disguise their disappointment, for it was apparent on every face in the Angels’ clubhouse Wednesday night after their 3-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics.

Even their postgame meal had no taste, not with the bitterness of losing the first three games of this four-game series mixed in.

Mike Moore held the Angels to three hits in seven-plus innings Wednesday at Anaheim Stadium, gaining his 100th victory. In winning their seventh consecutive game, the Athletics vaulted past the Chicago White Sox into first place in the American League West.

The Angels’ offense lacked the punch of Dave Winfield, who was limited to pinch hitting because of a tight hamstring, and Wally Joyner, who sat out because of a groin pull. They also lost shortstop Dick Schofield after the fifth inning because of an injured groin.

But their absences didn’t dilute Moore’s effort in the eyes of A’s Manager Tony La Russa.

“Even without Joyner and Winfield, it was an outstanding job,” La Russa said.

Abbott did a decent job, except for two pitches. Jose Canseco slammed one of those an estimated 435 feet and into the right-field terrace seats in the fourth inning, and Dave Henderson sent the

other into the left-field seats in the sixth for Oakland’s final run.

“Any time you lose, no matter where it is, it has the potential to be demoralizing,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “I would like to think the character of this club is such that that won’t happen. . . . I consider all of us here resilient. It’s not anything to be bent out of shape about.”

Still, the Angels found the defeat difficult to take.

“It’s an awful disappointment,” said Abbott, who is 0-4 in six starts against the Athletics.

“The game (Tuesday, an 8-5 loss in 11 innings) was frustrating, too. We’ve hit the ball hard, but we hit it at people the first two nights. Tonight was one of those nights they just beat us. Dave Henderson and Jose Canseco are two of the best hitters in the American League.”

And even without Rickey Henderson, last year’s American League most valuable player, and shortstop Walt Weiss the Athletics are not noticeably weakened.

“They put a pretty good team out there,” Abbott said. “They have some really underrated players, like Mike Gallego, and they pitch well, which keeps them in a lot of games. They pitch well and they capitalize on their scoring chances.”

The Athletics scored a run in the second on a single by Mark McGwire, a double by Harold Baines and Willie Wilson’s ground out, but the Angels matched that in the third. Donnie Hill singled, went to third on Junior Felix’s single and scored on Schofield’s grounder.

They couldn’t match the power generated by Canseco, who stopped to admire the flight of the two-and-one pitch he hit off Abbott. He has 11 home runs and 27 runs batted in against the Angels in 28 games at Anaheim Stadium.

Henderson is nine for 15 with five home runs against Abbott.

“As far as matching up, his strengths match up pretty well against my weaknesses,” Abbott said.

As for other Angel shortcomings, there was Felix’s inability to bunt Max Vanable and Donnie Hill over in the eighth inning. But the Angels didn’t see these flaws as fatal.

“We’ve got to be disappointed. Look at the way we’ve played. We didn’t execute when we had to,” Luis Polonia said.

“We’re disappointed, knowing this is the team to beat and we can’t beat them, but we’ve got to keep our heads up. We’ve got to move runners up, bunt runners over. We haven’t been able to do it this series, but we know we can do that.”

Said Abbott: “I don’t think this means we’re a bad team. We’re playing a team that’s good and this lets us know what we have to do to contend. We have to capitalize on what’s given to us. They do, and we have to do the same thing, not only against Oakland but against everybody we play, in order to compete in this division.”