Angels Are on the Road Again, But to Where?

Three straight Angel losses in Boston. Four in a row overall. Two-and-seven in their last nine games.

Slip . . . or slide?

In earlier times, the Road Trip That Ate The Angels would come later in the schedule, usually at the end of August--14 or 15 games through the teeth of the AL East that would grind up the ballclub and spit it out, a wad of chewing gum to be stuck under the table for the rest of September.

Last year, the American League reshuffled its schedule and now the Angels are sent east for their annual mettle detector in June. Tonight is only the end of the first stop on a four-city, 13-game tour--Boston, followed by Milwaukee, Detroit and Kansas City.

The Angels have arrived at their first crossroads of the 1991 season. After tonight, it’s 62 down, 100 to go . . . and where the Angels finally settle, I’m not sure we want to know.

At the moment, the deficit is four games. Once upon a time, this was simple math. The solution: Wait for more A’s to drop, hang close for eight weeks and then kick some A’s in their six head-to-head meetings with Oakland in August.

The good old days.

Now, the equation in the AL West reads like calculus.

Minnesota, a most uncommon denominator, has won 15 in a row. Fifteen straight, with Chuck Knoblauch, Mike Pagliarulo and Scott Leius.

And 1987 was supposed to be the miracle.

Texas won 14 consecutive games in May, without Nolan Ryan, and has caught the Angels in the standings. Now Ryan’s back. Seattle is right there, too, four games out, with the youngest legs in the division. In Chicago, the White Sox have loads of talent and a lousy alarm clock. They haven’t even begun to fight.

The A’s are catchable, for sure, but four of the heirs currently apparent are not named the Angels. Yes, sometimes baseball does imitate the real world. American League or American life--right now, the outlook is no different.

Out West, everything’s too crowded.

This trip might not make or break the Angels, but it will certainly tell us more about them. What we know already: It’s a better team than the 1990 group . . . and it would be better still with a few more players from the 1990 group.

Junior Felix or Devon White? Everyone always knew White could outplay Felix in center field, but through Sunday, this is how they look at the plate:

Batting average: White, .278 to .268.

RBIs: White, 28 to 13.

Doubles: White, 17 to 6.

Home runs: White, 2 to 1.

It wasn’t a straight exchange; White also bought the Angels a second baseman, Luis Sojo. So? It’s mid-June and at second base, Luis is no longer solo, having hit (.206) and fielded (rookie jitters) his way into sharing the position with Donnie Hill and Jack Howell. Maybe Hill is the one who ought to go solo. He’s hitting .300 with 13 RBIs, almost as many as Dave Parker in less than half the at-bats.

Which leads us to the cringe-and-bear-it slot in the Angel batting order, designated hitter. Last off-season, the Angels were faced with more options at designated hitter than they knew what to do with, and as we have seen since, they didn’t know what to do with them.

You’re Angel GM for a day. Choose your DH for the 1991 season:

a) Thirteen-year Angel veteran Brian Downing, the club’s all-time leader in home runs, RBIs, hits, runs, doubles and total bases. His current ’91 stats: .301, 7 home runs, 21 RBIs.

b) 1989 team co-MVP Chili Davis, who averaged 18 home runs and 80 RBIs in three Angel seasons. His current ’91 stats: .296, 14 home runs, 41 RBIs.

c) Up-and-comer Dante Bichette, who had 15 home runs and 53 RBIs in 349 at-bats in 1990. His current ’91 stats: .215, 11 home runs, 35 RBIs.

d) Forty-year-old Dave Parker. His current ’91 stats: .199, three home runs, 19 RBIs.

The Angels didn’t just choose d). They traded c) to get him. And they refused to sign both a) and b), thus committing themselves, with no safety net, to d).

Give them a D.

Sunday, the Angels lost one more, catcher Lance Parrish, a 1990 all-star, to the 15-day disabled list. That leaves the Angels with two catchers who aren’t outhitting Oakland’s Terry Steinbach combined --Ron Tingley (.159) and John Orton (.125).

And Bob Boone wasn’t worth a one-year contract.

Felix and Fernando Valenzuela have also been shipped to the disabled list, so times are tough, but aren’t they everywhere? So the Angels will have to conclude this trip with Tingley at catcher, Dave Gallagher in center and Joe Grahe in the rotation. Oakland has been making do with much less--eight disabled bodies and counting--and has been doing it every day since Opening Day.

Depth will determine where the Angels go from here and how they will look when they return home, 11 long days from now.

If they have it, a battle will be won and the war can continue.

If they don’t, they’ll be living it--deep, deep, deep in the AL West standings.