Angel Quantity, Not Quality, 8-2 : Baseball: They get 11 hits against the Orioles, but few are timely as they lose for the 11th time in 13 games.

Searching for the faintest of positive signs after an 8-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles Monday that was the Angels’ 11th defeat in their last 13 games, interim Manager John Wathan found one flicker of hope.

“We got 11 hits and hopefully, that will give us something to build on for tomorrow,” he said. “I’m tired of talking about negatives. I saw some signs we’re going to break out of this thing. It’s tough to win when you’re scoring one, two, three runs a game. It’s tough on the pitching staff knowing you’ve got to be perfect every time out there.”

But of those 11 hits, none produced a run until the seventh, when starter Ben McDonald (7-2) had already yielded to Storm Davis and the Orioles had a 4-0 lead. The Angels stranded six runners in the first six innings, including runners at second and third during the fourth and a runner at third during the sixth, before finally breaking through for single runs in the seventh and ninth.

They stranded 11 runners overall, matching their high for the season.

The Angels, losers of eight of 10 games under Wathan, have scored three runs or fewer in seven consecutive games and nine of their last 11. That left Wathan and his players little to be positive about.

“We don’t get the key hits when we need them,” said Luis Polonia, whose infield single scored Gary Gaetti with the Angels’ first run, during the seventh. “All the situations go wrong. We get a hit, then we ground into a double play.

“It’s hard to explain what’s going on with this team. I don’t think I can find an explanation. Nothing is working right now. We’re playing the same way we did earlier in the season: We’re doing the hit and run and getting the guy over, but we just don’t get the hits at the right times.”

One hit--a two-run homer by Randy Milligan against Julio Valera (2-4)--capped Baltimore’s three-run first inning. Valera didn’t pitch badly; he simply pitched without offensive support.

“It’s very difficult when you get off to a start like that and you’re having problems scoring runs,” Wathan said. “We hit the ball well but we didn’t have timely hitting.

“Hitting is the thing,” Wathan added after the Angels fell seven games below .500 (21-28) for the first time this season and dropped into a tie for fifth with the Seattle Mariners.

“We’ve pitched well enough for the most part, but I’d like to have some games where we score seven runs. It’s been a long time since we had a big inning. That’s something that would help this ballclub, one big inning. That would get us juiced up.”

One big, productive game would probably suffice.

“You can be struggling along and then turn things around with one game,” catcher Lance Parrish said. “We started hitting the ball hard, we just haven’t been fortunate enough to have that kind of game. We did early in the season and that contributed to our early success.

“We’re searching for answers, and they’re very difficult to come by right now.”

The Orioles, who stayed a game behind Toronto in the AL East, scored during the seventh and pounded Chuck Crim for four runs during the ninth to get their third victory over the Angels in four games this season.

“(McDonald) threw the ball well,” Wathan said of the right-hander, who gave up six hits in 6 1/3 innings. “Mike Devereaux had a big night, and so did Milligan. Getting down early in the ballgame makes it very difficult with what we’ve been going through.”

Wathan, who jokingly asked after the Angels’ 14-2 loss to Cleveland Friday if interim managers can be fired, smiled wearily when asked if interim managers can resign.

“I would never resign,” he said. “No way. Buck (Rodgers) wants me to do a job, and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability.”

With the worst of offensive production.