Venable, Rader Bite the Dust at Home Plate : Baseball: Center fielder might have kept manager from being ejected if he had slid in the seventh.

Max Venable knew he could have saved Angel Manager Doug Rader a lot of frustration Monday night. And maybe an early trip to the showers.

“I’m really mad at myself,” said Venable, the Angels’ center fielder. “I should have slid into home and everything would have been fine.”

But he didn’t and was thrown out in the seventh inning of the Angels’ 6-2 victory over the Rangers at Anaheim Stadium.

Venable wound up the victim of a wild--and controversial--throw to the plate.

And when all was finished, Venable was out and Rader was ejected for arguing with the umpire.

“He (Rader) was pretty upset,” Venable said.

Here’s why:

The Angels loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh and the score tied, 2-2.

Venable, who had reached on a fielder’s choice, was on first, Luis Polonia on second and Donnie Hill on third.

Wally Joyner singled to right, scoring Hill and Polonia. Ruben Sierra, who had fielded the ball in right, threw to third to try and get Venable.

But the throw was wild, bouncing off the guard rail protecting the TV camera next to the Angel dugout.

Venable rounded third and headed for home.

Palmer scrambled for the ball, then threw home to catcher Ivan Rodriguez, who was buried by a charging Venable.

Rodriguez held onto the ball, and Venable was called out.

As Venable headed for the dugout, he was passed by Rader, who was on his way to argue that Sierra’s throw had hit the TV camera, and was thus out of play. Anaheim Stadium ground rules award two bases to runners if a ball is ruled out of play on a throw.

Had the ball been ruled out, Venable would have been safe. It wasn’t.

Venable wasn’t the only one out. Rader was, too. He was tossed by second base umpire Don Denkinger for arguing the call.

Venable said he never saw where Sierra’s throw went, and he didn’t much care. He had one thing on his mind--scoring.

“When I was going home,” he said, “the coaches were telling me, ‘Slide, slide.’ But by the time I reacted, I couldn’t get down.

“If I would have slid, I could have been safe. He (Rodriguez) had the plate covered pretty well.”

Not much went right Monday night for Venable, a platoon player who has been a regular lately. After collecting seven hits in his previous 14 at-bats, including four hits Saturday, he went hitless in four at-bats.

“I had been swinging the bat pretty good since our trip to Kansas City last week,” he said. “Nothing was falling in for me at the start of the season, but they have lately.

“Baseball’s such a funny game. You’ll hit the ball hard, and go 0 for 4. Then you’ll hit some bloops and get on all the time.”

But Venable isn’t frustrated. He’s just glad to be contributing to a team in the thick of the AL West race.

“This game was a big one,” he said. “We had to win it. We came out of this series with a split, and we’re pretty pleased about that.”