Athletics End Drought by Pouring It On : Baseball: Hapless Angels routed, 14-2, as Carney Lansford leads Oakland offense with five hits and five RBIs.

The Oakland Athletics’ bats, silent since the Jose Canseco trade, came thundering to life Tuesday against the Angels, pounding out 19 hits in a 14-2 rout in front of 18,904 at Anaheim Stadium.

Before the romp that kept them 4 1/2 games ahead of the Minnesota Twins in the AL West, the A’s had won once in seven games by scoring a total of 12 runs. But they outdid themselves Tuesday with a season-high 14 runs against weak Angel pitching. Oakland scored five runs against Chuck Finley (4-12), two against Tim Fortugno and three against left-hander Hilly Hathaway in Hathaway’s major league debut.

A leadoff home run in the eighth inning by John Orton--his first homer since April 27, 1990--gave the Angels their first run before they added another in the ninth.

Finley, who is 1-10 against Oakland, has not won since Aug. 1. He is 0-3 with four no-decisions since.

Former Angel Carney Lansford was five for six with five runs batted in, including two RBIs in the fifth inning. By scoring three times in the fifth, Oakland broke the game open and ended a streak of 92 innings without scoring as many as three runs in an inning.

The beneficiary of the outburst was Kelly Downs (4-5), who shut out the Angels on three hits for 6 1/3 innings. Downs had not won since Aug. 6 at Texas.

Triple-A outfielder Reggie Williams also made his major league debut for the Angels when he replaced Junior Felix in center field in the eighth inning.

But the new faces did not help Tuesday night as Oakland’s offensive slumber ended quickly.

Rickey Henderson narrowly missed adding to his major league record of 54 leadoff home runs when he lined a 3-2 pitch off the top of the fence in right-center, settling for a triple. He scored when Lance Blankenship singled to left, the 13th run scored by the A’s in eight games.

Finley appeared to be in for a rough night when Ruben Sierra hit a shot down the left-field line, but it curved foul. Finley retired Sierra on a fly to the warning track in center, and got Dave Henderson and Lansford to ground out.

The Angels also got their leadoff hitter on base when Damion Easley singled to center, but Easley was thrown out trying to steal second. They tested Terry Steinbach’s arm again after Chad Curtis struck out but reached first on a passed ball. Curtis also was thrown out.

With two out in the fourth, the A’s extended their lead to 2-0. After Finley struck out Dave Henderson, Lansford singled to right, Steinbach flied to left, and Willie Wilson singled to center, improving his career mark against Finley to 12 for 36 (.333). Mike Bordick dumped a Finley pitch into short center, scoring Lansford and advancing Wilson to second. But Walt Weiss ended the inning by grounding to short.

Bordick’s RBI was Oakland’s first in 25 at-bats with two out and runners in scoring position since the Sierra-Jose Canseco trade.

Finley continued to struggle in the fifth, although the A’s never really hit him hard. Two walks complicated the situation, and he trailed 5-0 by the time the ending ended.