Angels Let Lead, Game Slip Away : Baseball: Brewers come back from 4-1 deficit for a 5-4 victory.

With an inconsistent offense that leaves them little margin for error, the Angels’ penchant for fielding and throwing errors has become their downfall this season.

Bobby Rose’s throwing error on Darryl Hamilton’s potential double-play grounder--the Angels’ fourth error of the game--enabled Jim Gantner to score the decisive run in the eighth inning Friday night as the Milwaukee Brewers rallied from a 4-1 deficit for a 5-4 victory before 29,338 fans at Anaheim Stadium. The defeat left the Angels 0-4, matching their worst start ever, in 1976. No Angel team has ever lost its first five games.

Eager for his players to record their first victory, Angel Manager Buck Rodgers had gone to setup man Mark Eichhorn in the sixth inning and Bryan Harvey (0-1) in the eighth, but the Angels’ fielding fumbles rendered that strategy useless.

Harvey, who never worked longer than two innings last season--and that long only four times--gave up a leadoff single to Jim Gantner, who stole second. Scott Fletcher struck out and Paul Molitor was walked intentionally to bring up Hamilton. The Brewer right fielder hit a routine grounder to short, where Gary DiSarcina scooped it up and threw to second baseman Rose for the force on Molitor. Rose’s throw to first bounced well in front of Lee Stevens, ricocheted off Stevens’ arm and behind him, giving Gantner ample time to score.

The Angels, who last season were third in the AL with a .984 fielding percentage, have committed 11 errors this season.

The loss wasted a respectable effort by substitute starter Scott Lewis, who gave up three runs over five-plus innings, and a two-run home run in the third by Von Hayes. The homer was his second in 12 at-bats after going 336 at-bat without a homer.

The Angels, Red Sox, Royals and Tigers are the major leagues’ only winless teams.

The Angels scored first for the first time in three games, but another in a series of baserunning blunders minimized what could have been a big first inning.

Luis Polonia led off the inning with a broken-bat single to center and he was running when Junior Felix slashed a line drive to left. Greg Vaughn caught up to the ball but let it bounce off the end of his glove for an error, allowing Polonia to score.

Felix, who was thrown out Thursday after taking too wide a turn rounding first following a sixth-inning single, used bad judgment again Friday with the same result. This time, he was trapped between second and third, and was eventually tagged out trying to dive back into second.

Hayes kept the inning going by drawing a walk, but Hubie Brooks popped out to catcher B.J. Surhoff in foul territory and Lee Stevens popped up to short.

The Brewers came back immediately with a run in the second. Vaughn singled to left and took second on Robin Yount’s broken-bat single to center, the 2,881st hit of Yount’s career. Vaughn tagged and took third on Franklin Stubbs’ fly to right, and he scored on Kevin Seitzer’s lineout to center. Felix caught the ball in shallow center and had a chance to get Vaughn, but his throw was up the line toward third and bounced away from catcher Lance Parrish.

Lewis walked Jim Gantner and got into trouble facing Scott Fletcher. However, that at-bat provided an unusual moment. Home-plate umpire Tim Tschida called time after Lewis had begun his windup, so Lewis threw home rather than risk injury by stopping suddenly. Parrish had moved out of his crouch and away from the plate to receive it--but Tschida had moved, too, and the pitch hit him on the left hip. Tschida was not hurt, and Lewis went on to get Fletcher on a called third strike to end the inning.

Hayes’ homer, measured at 382 feet, vaulted the Angels back into the lead in the third inning. Polonia had led off with a walk and scored ahead of Hayes after the Angel right fielder blasted Bones’ one-and-two pitch over the right-field fence. The homer gave Hayes the club lead in RBIs, with five.

Bones was relieved by Dan Plesac after he hit Rose on the left arm to open the fourth inning. Rose was caught stealing, and Plesac finished the inning easily.