Snow Has the Mark of Zero : Baseball: No longer anonymous, Angel first baseman and teammates get lesson from Clemens in 3-1 loss to Red Sox.

First baseman J.T. Snow sat nearly alone Saturday in the Angel clubhouse. Most of his teammates had long ago departed after a 3-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox, but there he was hours later, still in uniform.

The only sound in the clubhouse was the whirring noise of the videotape machine. Snow was mesmerized, watching tapes of his at-bats against Roger Clemens, trying to detect what has gone so wrong so quickly.

Only a few days ago, it seems, Snow was tearing up the American League. He was on every sportscast in America and had become an overnight celebrity.

In five games, Snow has been rudely introduced to an old-fashioned batting slump. He failed to hit the ball out of the infield in four at-bats Saturday, striking out twice, and is one for his last 17.

Welcome to the big leagues, kid.

“I guess I knew it was going to happen eventually,” said Snow, whose average has dropped from .407 to .324, “but it’s still tough to take. The first few weeks, everything happened so easily.

“It was like no matter what I did, I was going to get my two hits. Everything they threw up there, I was hitting. I know I’m not a home run hitter, but maybe subconsciously after I hit my sixth, I’ve been trying to pull the ball to hit more of them.

“Now, I feel like I’ve been swinging at so many bad pitches, my strike zone is about six feet by six feet. I’m not quite sure how I’ll get out of it, but I figure it might be time to give old dad a call.”

His father, Jack Snow, is a former Ram receiver.

Clemens (4-1), who initiated the Angels’ hitting slump when he faced them last Sunday, says that Snow’s biggest problem is that he has become a marked man. No longer is he merely another anonymous player in the Angel lineup.

“He’s probably going to see different kinds of pitches from now on because he had such a good start,” said Clemens, who gave up only five hits in eight innings, striking out a season-high 11. “I wanted to bust him inside more and show him a few more things I can throw.

“I mean, it was good to see him get off to a good start because so many people didn’t like the (Jim Abbott) trade, but it also has made people aware of him rather quickly.”

The Angels’ 13-7 start also has gained notice. After climbing atop the American League West, the Angels no longer are being taken lightly.

“The way things were going the first couple of weeks,” rookie right fielder Tim Salmon said, “I think we woke up a few people.”

In their last five games, the Angels are batting .124 with 18 hits and seven runs.

It would be easy for Manager Buck Rodgers to rest one of his slumping players, but everywhere he turns, someone is struggling:

Center fielder Chad Curtis is 0 for 16; shortstop Gary DiSarcina is 0 for 15; catchers John Orton and Greg Myers are a combined one for 23; second baseman Damion Easley, one for 15; Salmon, one for 13; designated hitter Chili Davis, one for 12, and third baseman Rene Gonzales, three for 19.

Leadoff hitter Luis Polonia ended a three-for-16 slide with a double, triple and single in his first three at-bats.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the Angels’ third defeat in the last four games is that they squandered another fine pitching performance from starter Scott Sanderson (3-1), who was victimized by an outfield gaffe between Curtis and Salmon in the second inning. The Angels never recovered.

The Red Sox, who tied the game, 1-1, earlier in the inning on Scott Cooper’s run-scoring single, got the only break they needed when John Valentin hit a one-out fly ball to right-center field. Curtis and Salmon said they could have caught it, but instead were left looking at one another while the ball dropped in between them for a single.

Curtis said he stopped when he heard Salmon shout, “You got it.” But, Curtis explained, “I never heard the ‘you’ part.”

“The way our communication works,” Curtis said, “is that either you say nothing or you say, ‘I’ll take it.’ That’s what threw me off.”

The blunder allowed Boston to load the bases with one out. Sanderson struck out Tony Pena, but then gave up a two-run single by Scott Fletcher.

The Red Sox had a 3-1 lead, and the 33,546 at Fenway Park spent the rest of the game watching Clemens put the Angels to rest.

“Well, everyone wanted to know how J.T. and the young players would respond once they got into their first hitting slump,” Rodgers said. “Now we’ll find out.”