Angels Difficult to Figure : Baseball: Last-place California takes three of four from first-place Twins. Langston gets his 15th victory.

Stranger things have happened, the Angels say as they look at the American League West standings and imagine they can make the long climb back from last place.

But, really, hasn’t it been strange enough already? After losing eight of nine games on their last home stand, the Angels came to the Metrodome and won three of four from the Minnesota Twins--the first-place Minnesota Twins.

On Thursday, the Angels finished the season series with a 9-1 thrashing of the Twins in front of 31,880 increasingly worried fans. What is happening to their team?

The Angels would like to know what has happened to theirs, too.

“What happened the other way was inexplicable,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said, recalling his team’s skid from first to last place in about one month. “This is equally so.”

Let’s put it this way: When Luis Sojo, the smooth-fielding but light-hitting Angel second baseman, hits a 396-foot home run, something is going the Angels’ way.

Still, it’s only one series.

“It’s three more wins than we came in here with,” Rader said. “We obviously need a lot more. We need to keep playing like we played here--loose and aggressive. The guys are enjoying themselves. It’s wonderful to see.”

Much of the Angels’ good fortune came at the expense of Scott Erickson, the Twins’ pitcher who had a 12-game winning streak this season but who has struggled

since spending the first two weeks of July on the disabled list because of a sore right elbow.

Erickson was scratched from Thursday’s start for a time because of newspaper reports that Erickson said he was not 100%. Kelly reinstated Erickson when the pitcher claimed that even though he was not 100%, the elbow was fine.

He did not pitch fine in the third inning, giving up five runs on five hits, including doubles by Wally Joyner and Dave Parker and a two-run homer by Lance Parrish, his 300th of his career, the 15th of the season and his third in three games.

Despite that, Erickson, who has a 7.68 earned-run average and is 3-3 since the end of his streak, insisted he “felt good.” He pitched three innings and was charged with five runs. His record fell to 15-5.

Erickson’s counterpart, Mark Langston, was outstanding, giving up two singles through seven innings, when the Angels relieved him in order to get work for relievers Chris Beasley and Mike Fetters.

“He pitched seven innings in what seemed like about an hour and 10 minutes,” Rader said. “Boom, boom, boom, he went right after them. He pitched great.”

Langston (15-6) finally got his 15th victory, after four attempts. He won No. 14 on July 26, but the Angels scored a total of only four runs in the next three games he started.

This time, they gave him a 5-0 lead in the third inning.

The Angels got homers from Sojo, center fielder Shawn Abner, and Parrish, who entered the game with a 20-game strikeout streak. When the game was over, Parrish’s strikeout streak was dead, and a three-game homer streak was alive.

His 300th home run came the night after Dave Winfield hit his 400th.

“It’s a very big accomplishment in my career, and I’m very proud,” said Parrish, whose 282 home runs as a catcher rank fifth. The all-time leader, Carlton Fisk, the White Sox catcher, entered the season with 332.

After a dismal slump, Parrish has tried to find his power again by hitting to the opposite field. Two of his three homers in the series were to right-center.

The 300th was special, but Parrish said: “I wish the circumstances were a little bit better. The way the club’s been going, and the way I’ve been going, this isn’t the best of years. It might be a little more enjoyable, say, if we were in first place.”

But at least things were looking up Thursday night.

“The Angels pounded us around the last couple of days,” Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly said. “Nobody thought the Angels were going to play bad the whole second half. They were in first place on what, July 3? You can’t be in first place and then have nothing. They hit a bad stretch, and it looks to me they’ve got it going now.”