Angels Stumble, Lose, 6-3 : Baseball: But after being swept by A’s and losing seven of 10 games on trip, they return to Anaheim only 2 games out of first place.

Rene Gonzales and Chuck Finley stood in opposite corners of the visitors’ clubhouse at the Oakland Coliseum on Thursday, out of earshot but clearly on the same wavelength. The same words kept coming out of their mouths after the Athletics completed a three-game sweep with a 6-3 victory over the Angels.

The bottom line, they said, was this: Sure, the Angels lost little ground in the American League West standings, but where would they be if they had won a couple of games against the last-place A’s?

“I don’t know if we should be thankful because we’re right there, or kicking ourselves because we should be taking this thing,” Gonzales said after the Angels finished their final trip before the All-Star break, one during which they lost seven of 10 games to Kansas City, Minnesota and Oakland.

Across the room, Finley could only shake his head and wonder how the Angels could still be this close to first-place Chicago.

“At times you have to be thankful to only be 2 1/2 (actually 2) games out,” he said after lasting only 3 1/3 innings against the A’s, giving up six runs, five earned, and nine hits.

The Angels looked more like the last-place team, and the A’s appeared to be capable of making a run at the division leaders. Only 6 1/2 games separated first and last in the division going into Thursday, and if the A’s victory over the Angels was any indication, the differences between front-runners and also-rans is negligible.

The Angels had their chances to win Thursday. But they blew a lead of two runs or more for the third consecutive game, failed to score after the fifth inning for the second day in a row and watched Finley struggle in losing for the 11th time in 13 decisions against Oakland.

They headed back to Anaheim knowing that a 10-game home stand that opens tonight against the Cleveland Indians is as important as any this season.

But the question is, where do they go from here?

“I think if we can get back to burying people when we get the chance, we’ll be all right,” said Gonzales, who singled twice and scored a run. “A perfect example was (Wednesday’s 5-4 loss). I thought we should have just buried them. Our offensive spurts have been just here and there. It hasn’t been constant. When we get away from that, that’s not going to do it.

“We’re pretty privileged to still be close. We can really take advantage of it.”

Finley was saying the same thing, wondering whether the Angels will find a groove before another team finds it first and runs away from the pack.

“We tend to be like a ball,” he said. “We’re bouncing up and down, up and down. Today, I didn’t make too many good pitches and that’s why I got hammered.”

A’s designated hitter Terry Steinbach inflicted most of the damage, driving in four runs with two singles and a two-run home run. He improved his average against Finley to .432, with three homers.

Steinbach’s two-out two-run homer in the third inning pulled the A’s even at 3-3. His infield single that scored Rickey Henderson from third base was the exclamation point during a three-run fourth inning that gave the A’s a 6-3 lead.

Starter Bob Welch (6-6) and relievers Storm Davis and Edwin Nunez held the Angels scoreless with only four hits during the final six innings.

“These guys were really treading water,” Finley said. “It was the same with Minnesota. You have to pound these guys when they’re down. I know Oakland used to come in and pound us. They used to treat us like the team we were.”

Finley’s outing, his shortest of the season, didn’t help.

“Well, you saw Finley at his best in Minnesota (in his last start),” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said. “And you saw the other side today. He had to throw too much of the other stuff because his fastball was no good.”

Finley threw a three-hitter in defeating the Twins, 4-0, last Sunday at the Metrodome, but looked like a different pitcher against the A’s.

In sweeping the series, the A’s defeated the Angels’ best two pitchers in Finley (9-6) and Mark Langston (9-2), and that concerned Rodgers as much as anything that transpired in the past three games.

“Hopefully, we’ll get Langston and Finley back to their good game modes,” he said. “Pitching and some timely hitting were the biggest problems here. We’re probably damned lucky to get swept in a series and lose only a game in the standings.”