Angels Are Talk, A’s Are Action : Baseball: Nothing is equal in Oakland’s 4-3 victory over Langston.

Mark Langston achieved his goal of keeping Rickey Henderson off the basepaths Saturday. If he had been as successful against Dave Henderson, the Angels’ claim that they are Oakland’s equal would have had more substance and sounded less like bravado after a 4-3 loss to the Athletics.

Dave Henderson, who is Langston’s off-season neighbor in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, Wash., wasn’t neighborly as the A’s defeated the Angels for the fifth time in six games. Henderson had four singles in four at-bats and scored a run in the A’s three-run first inning at the Oakland Coliseum.

“We live 30 feet away from each other. It’s not 60 feet 6 inches, but it’s close enough,” said Dave Henderson, who leads the American League with a .406 batting average and is seven for seven against Langston this season. “I’ve got the bragging rights of the neighborhood.”

The 36,947 had hoped to see Rickey Henderson get the two steals he needs to break Lou Brock’s career record. They didn’t. Henderson was hitless in four at-bats in his return from a 14-game absence caused by a pulled left calf muscle. But they did see an impressive display by Dave Henderson and by catcher Terry Steinbach, who drove in three runs.

Two of Steinbach’s RBIs came in the first inning and helped the A’s overcome a 2-0 lead the Angels had taken against Mike Moore (3-0). Steinbach’s double scored Jose Canseco, who had walked, and Dave Henderson. Steinbach scored on Mark McGwire’s single to left.

Steinbach drove in Oakland’s final run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning. The Angels came back with a run in the seventh on Jack Howell’s double and Lance Parrish’s pinch-hit single, but Steve Chitren, Curt Young and Dennis Eckersley held them off.

“I broke his bat three times. What are you going to do?” Langston (1-1) said of Dave Henderson, his teammate for almost three seasons with the Mariners. “He breaks his bat three times, we’ve got guys diving after the ball. Those loopers are going to fall in. . . . Today I thought I made some good pitches. Things are just going his way, and that’s not just against me.”

Things haven’t gone the Angels’ way lately. They have lost five of their last six games and eight of 12.

“I can’t explain it, and in my opinion, I think that we are just as good, if not better,” said first baseman Wally Joyner, who singled and scored in the first inning but was stranded in the eighth after a one-out double.

“They’ve had the timely hits. They’ve had a couple of big innings the last couple of days, but obviously quite a few people would beg to differ with me saying we’re better than they are. I’ve got a lot of confidence in this ballclub. We’re just not clicking right now. But we’re getting close.”

Rickey Henderson came closest to getting on base in the first inning, when he drove a pitch by Langston to deep center. Henderson struck out in the second, grounded to short in the fifth and popped to second in the seventh before being replaced by Doug Jennings.

“I was nervous. It seemed like it was my first game, like opening day,” he said. “I didn’t know how my calf would react. I have to try to get the fear out of my mind.”

Once he regains his feel at the plate, he will worry about Brock’s record of 938 steals.

“Getting a hit is more on my mind. You can’t steal first base. You’ve got to get a hit,” he said. “I’d like to get this over with so I can concentrate on playing baseball, on helping the team win ballgames.

“I think I’m going to do it sometime on this home stand. It would be good to do it against the Angels because I have some friends there--Dave Winfield and Dave Parker--but I also wouldn’t mind doing it against the Yankees (Oakland’s next opponent). George (Steinbrenner) might get a chance to see it.”

Langston says the difference between the A’s and Angels is simple: “It seems they make the big pitch or big play when they have to.”

Statistics suggest Langston has trouble doing that. Opponents scored 51% of their runs against him with two outs in 1990 and have scored six of 12 (50%) this season with two outs. Overall, opponents have scored 26 of 65 runs (40%) with two outs.

“It’s not like I’m out there not trying to get that third out,” Langston said.

The Angels are now trying to avoid a sweep.

Said Luis Polonia, hitless in his last eight at-bats. “It was very disappointing to see how things go. I don’t know where first base is at yet. I haven’t been there, and I’ve been swinging the bat well. We just have to come back (today) and come home with a win.”