Rangers Stymie Abbott : Baseball: Angel left-hander finishes game but loses, 5-2, after giving up three-run homer in the first inning.

The rabbit’s foot tacked to Jim Abbott’s locker changed his luck Monday--but not for the better.

In most of his starts this season, the Angel left-hander has pitched well, only to be shortchanged by his team’s offense. Monday night, he didn’t even have the satisfaction of pitching well: Abbott gave up a season-high 13 hits, including a three-run home run to Juan Gonzalez in the first inning, as the Rangers rolled to a 5-2 victory over the Angels before a season-low crowd of 19,127 at Anaheim Stadium.

“He’s cursed,” interim Manager John Wathan said after Abbott (2-9) pitched his third complete game, all losses. “Every time he pitches, we don’t score runs for him.”

The Angels have averaged two runs of support each time Abbott pitches. They haven’t been much more generous to their other starters, but after seeing the Angels score 19 runs in winning their previous four games, Abbott had hope for better.

That hope vanished quickly, after former Angel Brian Downing singled, Dean Palmer singled and Gonzalez slammed a 2-and-1 fastball deep into the left-field seats for his 15th homer of the season.

“Jim Abbott is as good a pitcher as there is in baseball,” Ranger Manager Bobby Valentine said after his team’s three-game losing streak had ended. “It’s hard to believe he hasn’t won more than he has and that we were able to jump on him for some runs so early.”

It mattered little that Abbott regrouped after the first inning because the Angels could do no better than four singles and two unearned runs off converted reliever Todd Burns (1-0) in eight innings. Jeff Russell pitched a hitless ninth to earn his 17th save of the season and 100th of his career.

“You have to be fine to win a game like this, and I wasn’t fine,” said Abbott, who has one triumph in his last 12 starts, a 2-1 decision over Toronto on May 9.

“The Texas Rangers are a good hitting ballclub. We knew that coming in,” said Abbott, who had combined with Bryan Harvey to shut out the Ranges, 3-0, on April 13. “You have to pitch very well to keep those guys down because one through nine, they have a strong lineup. . . .

“I have nobody to blame except myself. I didn’t keep the team in the game long enough.”

After the first inning, Abbott gave up a run in the fourth on a single by Julio Franco and a double by rookie catcher Russ McGinnis and another run in the eighth after a leadoff double by Downing.

Downing was surprised at the Rangers’ success against Abbott.

“He was awesome in Texas. He threw as absolutely great as it’s possible to throw,” Downing said. “After the way he threw that night, I thought he was on track for a 25-win season. Fortunately for us, we got the three-run home run in the first because after the first, he pitched pretty well.”

Luis Polonia, who grounded into a one-two-three double play in the second inning, theorized that the Angels try too hard to reward Abbott’s efforts.

“Everybody wants him to win, and everybody knows how well he’s been pitching,” Polonia said. “We’re trying so hard to win for him, we don’t do what we’re supposed to do. We weren’t patient enough to wait for our pitches tonight. We went out and tried to hit the ball out of the ballpark. I’ve never seen so many fly balls and pop-ups like I did tonight.”

A teammate of Burns’ in Oakland’s minor league system, Polonia said Burns was hardly overpowering Monday.

“He threw a pretty good game and had pretty good command of every pitch he threw,” Polonia said, “but normally he’s a reliever and we probably thought we were going to get this guy so easy, we didn’t concentrate and do the things we’ve been doing.”

Abbott, trying hard to hide his frustration, vented his anger after giving up the Rangers’ eighth-inning run when he slammed his glove against the dugout wall. “That glove has been slammed around pretty good,” Abbott said, with a small smile. “It’s used to it.”

He doesn’t want to get used to losing.

“To give up three quick runs and then the rest of the game to give up two, I guess that’s some consolation,” said Abbott, whose earned-run average rose from 3.09 to 3.24. “I didn’t throw a whole lot of pitches. . . . You just try to keep your team in the game as best you can and I didn’t do that tonight.”