Langston Outpitches Abbott : Baseball: Angel starter throws a three-hitter to beat Yankees, 3-2. Former Angel gives up game-winning home run to Salmon in ninth inning.

New York Yankee starter Jim Abbott sat alone in the dugout, too numb to move Wednesday night, watching the Angels rush onto the field to celebrate Tim Salmon’s game-winning homer in a 3-2 victory.

It was as if he couldn’t believe this was happening. Not again. When Salmon led off the ninth with the home run into the left-field seats, Abbott actually stuck out his glove, asking for another ball from plate umpire Derryl Cousins.

It wasn’t until he saw his teammates walk off the field that he realized the game was over. He walked twice around the mound, headed toward the dugout and flung his glove in frustration.

“It’s going to take a long time for me to get over this,” Abbott said tersely. “The fans were great tonight, and I’ll have a lot of good memories, but obviously the home run will be the lingering memory.”

Someone then asked Abbott why he asked for another baseball. Did he forget the score, or perhaps the inning?

“I guess I’m used to being on the home field,” he said, shrugging.

But the home field belonged to Mark Langston, who did not give up a hit through seven innings and finished with a three-hitter, striking out 13.

Later, after Abbott, who was traded by the Angels to the Yankees on Dec. 6, had finished the last of his interviews, he walked into the trainer’s room and screamed in frustration.

Once again, he pitched superbly, certainly well enough to win, giving up only five hits and two earned runs.

Once again he walked off the field at Anaheim Stadium a loser.

Some things just don’t change.

“I really felt bad for Jim because it was just an emotional game,” said Langston, Abbott’s best friend. “I just wish we had hit that homer off someone else. Then everything would have been perfect.

“But it’s a business, and you’ve got to put those feelings away when you walk onto the field.”

It was quite fitting, and perhaps appropriate, that Abbott was victimized by yet another pitcher shutting down his teammates. The Angels averaged only 2.64 runs a game for him last season, the lowest run-support since the introduction of the designated hitter.

But this time was different. This time, Langston held the Yankees struck out 12 through seven innings without allowing a ball to be hit out of the infield.

“It was as good as I’ve pitched in a long, long time,” Langston said.

Yankee left fielder Randy Velarde broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff single up the middle in the eighth. The 33,070 fans moaned before giving Langston a rousing standing ovation.

“I was thinking about it (the no-hitter) the whole time,” Langston said. “I was praying to get it out of my mind so I could just concentrate on the game, but I never did.

“In between innings, I just prayed. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”

Abbott, showing his respect, completed the bottom of the eighth and then pointed toward Langston in the Angel dugout.

Langston acknowledged the gesture, but then found himself screaming moments later when Danny Tartabull tied the game with a two-out, two-run double.

Langston saw all of his work, all of the great pitches he threw the entire game, washed away because of a 3-and-2 hanging breaking ball.

He sat in the dugout, still upset, when Salmon sent Abbott’s 0-and-1 fastball over the left-field wall.

Langston was the first player out of the dugout to greet Salmon at home plate, and for the moment, forgot who had been victimized.

“This was unbelievable,” Salmon said. “A home run was the furthest thing from my mind. I was just trying to hit the ball back up the middle. This one is going to stick in my mind for a long time.”

The victory ensured the Angels (13-5) of their best winning percentage in April in franchise history and will be a game that no one will soon forget.

“We’ll be playing 162 games this year,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said, “but I think this will be the most emotional game we’ll play all year. We certainly all wanted to win, but you couldn’t help yourself rooting for Jimmy Abbott, either.”

The crowd, realizing this was more than just another game, provided Abbott with a standing ovation when he walked out of the visitor’s bullpen before the game. The applause grew louder and louder, building to a crescendo when he reached the mound.

Abbott stood on the mound, trying to stay calm, but his insides were churning as if it were the seventh game of the World Series.

“It was a nice feeling because I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “The fans have been great. But I’m a Yankee now. And you know everyone hates the Yankees.”