It’s Back to Normal for Angels : Baseball: They get only two hits against Boston’s Clemens--and three total--in losing, 4-1.

Returning to family, friends and the familiar environment of Anaheim Stadium Tuesday night, the traumatized Angels were hoping for more. They were hoping for a return to normalcy, which is what they seemed to get.

They got only three hits in support of Jim Abbott and lost to Roger Clemens and the Boston Red Sox, 4-1.

Is anything more normal than a continuation of Clemens’ dominance and Abbott’s hard luck?

In the wake of a 2-7 trip that included the harrowing bus accident of last Thursday, the Angels were unable to do anything about those patterns.

A crowd of 23,649 saw Clemens give up only a third-inning single by Gary DiSarcina and a fourth-inning double by Von Hayes as he struck out eight and walked only one before Jeff Reardon came on to pitch the ninth, yielding a harmless single by Hayes.

Clemens is 7-3, having given up only three earned runs in the 34 innings of his last four starts, all victories.

He is 14-5 against the Angels, having won seven consecutive decisions, including five in a row against Abbott, who had also lost to Clemens, 3-0, in Fenway Park 10 days earlier.

Abbott is now 2-6, the Angels having scored only 20 runs in his 10 starts and 15 when he is on the mound. This one, however, wasn’t among his best.

He made 98 pitches in five innings, giving up eight hits and the four earned runs. He walked five and struck out three. Clemens, by contrast, delivered an economical 92 pitches in his eight innings, perpetuating the slump that saw the Angels average only 2.7 runs and 7.8 hits on the trip and bat only .227 since May 3.

The Angels returned home with a chance to heal more than their mental and physical scars. They play 18 of 25 at home in a stretch that began Tuesday night.

But after receiving a dispassionate reception from a crowd seemingly impervious to the wounds that the club had suffered on the road, Abbott and the Angels quickly fell behind.

Jody Reed opened the game with a single and scored on Mike Greenwell’s ensuing double to center. It was the first extra base hit of the season for Greenwell, who came in hitting .218 for his 87 at bats, and it was a gift.

Center fielder Junior Felix made a stumbling, back pedaling pursuit, with the ball falling behind him. Felix, the Angels’ RBI leader with 31, promptly left the game with a strained left groin muscle suffered when his spikes caught as he contorted under Greenwell’s drive, a club spokesman said.

The Red Sox made the score 2-0 during the fourth when they loaded the bases with two out on two walks and Phil Plantier’s single. Tony Pena then hit a chopper over the mound.

DiSarcina had no play on Pena or Tom Brunansky, who scored from third, but he threw out Plantier attempting to follow Brunansky home.

The Angels, limited to a DiSarcina single through three innings, made it 2-1 in the home half of the fourth. Von Hayes opened the inning by grounding a double down the right field line, and was brought home on two infield ground outs.

Abbott, however, wilted during the sixth, as the Red Sox expanded their lead to 4-1.

A single by Jack Clark, a walk to Ellis Burks and a single by Brunansky made it 3-1. A walk to Plantier loaded the bases and brought on Chuck Crim to replace Abbott.

Luis Rivera then hit a line drive that third baseman Gary Gaetti short-hopped and turned into a double play as Burks scored the fourth run.

John Wathan, the acting Angel manager, argued that third base umpire John Shulock had seemed to signal that Rivera’s drive had been caught by Gaetti, which would have led to a triple play, but Shulock conferred with home plate umpire Tim Tschida, who sustained the trap call--merely another setback for the Angels.