This Time, Langston Falls Short : Angels: He pitches a complete game, but that’s not enough as Red Sox win, 2-1.

As the Angels have watched their record sink to the wrong side of .500 and keep going, Mark Langston has been the one man who seemed able to slow the trend.

He was the winning pitcher in the only two games the Angels had won in their past 11 before Thursday night. But his battling, complete-game performance didn’t save them in a 2-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in front of 23,843 at Anaheim Stadium. Now, even Langston isn’t above the slide that has seen the Angels lose 12 of their last 15 games.

“I think that’s what’s the most disheartening, when you look at recent history with him pitching,” said interim Manager John Wathan, who held a pregame meeting to tell the Angels to try to keep their chins up during what has become a prolonged slump. “Langston pitched as good as you can pitch.”

The Angels, in fifth place in the American League West, lost for the eighth time in nine games and fell five games below .500 for the first time this season.

They have lost five of six since the May 21 bus accident in which Manager Buck Rodgers and 12 others were injured.

“I don’t think the accident has any bearing at all right now,” Wathan said. “We can’t use that for a long period of time as an excuse.”

Time is getting away.

“We’ve just got to turn it around,” Hubie Brooks said. “We’ve got to hurry up and turn it around, I think.”

Langston (5-2) pitched a complete game, giving up two runs and eight hits, striking out seven and walking three. He had won his past five decisions, not losing since opening night. In his past five starts, he has allowed no more than two runs.

But the offense that has failed the other pitchers failed him, too.

The Angels managed eight hits and stranded eight runners.

Boston starter Joe Hesketh (1-2) earned his first victory, and became the ninth left-handed starter of 10 faced to defeat the Angels. He gave up one run and six hits in seven innings.

He also created a save opportunity for Jeff Reardon, who pitched the ninth to earn the 339th of his career, two shy of Rollie Fingers’ major league record.

Boston’s three-game sweep marked its first against the Angels since 1984.

Boston took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, as Jody Reed led off with a double, took third on a groundout and scored on Jack Clark’s sacrifice fly.

The Angels put runners on first and third with two out in the first, but stranded them when Brooks struck out and Gary Gaetti flied to right.

The Angels tied the score in the second when Mike Fitzgerald singled to drive in Rene Gonzales, who doubled and took third on a groundout. Fitzgerald reached third on catcher Tony Pena’s throwing error on his steal of second, but Luis Polonia popped to short to end the inning.

Langston didn’t coast, he persevered. In the fourth and sixth, he stranded runners on third. But he wasn’t able to hold the Red Sox off in the fifth.

Luis Rivera led off with a single to right. Von Hayes charged the ball, then seemed to realize he had misjudged it and pulled back as it bounced. Rivera took second on a single by Reed, then scored on Mike Greenwell’s single to center. Reed was safe at third on the play, but Langston held the lead to 2-1 by striking out Tom Brunansky and retiring Clark on a fly to left.

“He battled, no doubt about it,” Wathan said. “A pitcher here and there, a couple of hits, would have gotten him out of the ballgame. But he was bearing down, and he made the pitches he had to make.”

Langston held the Red Sox in check, but the Angels could not catch them. Reed stole one opportunity with two outs in the fifth, when he raced back from second base to make an over-the-shoulder catch in shallow right field, leaving Gary DiSarcina on second.

“I thought it was going to fall in there. He sure made a great play,” Langston said. “That’s one of those balls that fall in all the time, That’s what wins games like that one.”

Said Hayes: “Right now, it seems like we’re only giving ourselves, one, maybe two times a game where we have an opportunity to score. We haven’t been getting the big hits.”