Major Mistake Costs Langston the Game : Baseball: Angel left-hander pitches well, but Tartabull’s homer in the eighth beats him.

Mark Langston pulled into Anaheim Stadium on Friday afternoon with one person on his mind: Jimmy Key.

He left Anaheim Stadium late Friday night with one other person on his mind: Danny Tartabull.

Tartabull’s monstrous, 394-foot home run, a bases-empty shot that landed deep in the Angel bullpen in the eighth inning, was the difference as the Yankees defeated the Angels, 3-2, running Langston’s string of consecutive starts without a victory to four.

“Jimmy Key pitched a great game,” said Langston, whose record dropped to 9-3. “I knew going in it would be a tight game.

“I kick myself for letting Danny Tartabull beat me late in the game like that. I’ve got to be smarter out there.”

Langston knew he would have to be nearly perfect. Key, who leads the American League in earned-run average and winning percentage, taunts opposing batters like few other pitchers.

On a good day, Langston can match him.

“You just try to keep the game as close as possible,” Langston said. “He did his job and I didn’t do mine.”

Langston surrendered a run-scoring double to Mike Stanley in the first and an RBI single to Don Mattingly in the fifth, but the Angels scratched out two runs of their own to square things after six innings.

Then came Tartabull in the eighth, and Langston’s first pitch was a ball. His second, a fastball, was last seen looking as if it was late for the evening’s final Amtrak departure.

Because Langston was a teammate of Tartabull’s in Chattanooga in 1983 and in Seattle from 1984 through 1986, he was even more frustrated with his pitch selection to the Yankee slugger.

“You can’t let a guy like that beat you late in the game,” Langston said. “I’ve got to make him hit my pitch, and not vice-versa.

“He’s a good guy. He plays hard and has got a lot of talent. Coming up through the minor leagues, I’ve seen him get in streaks where there is nobody in the game better. He can carry a team a long, long way.”

Langston also didn’t appreciate the way Tartabull paused long enough to cast an admiring glance at the home run before he started running. Langston yelled at Tartabull to run and received no reply.

But at that point, Langston had more to worry about than Tartabull showing him up. Langston, who will be the Angels’ lone All-Star game representative next week, is now 0-2 with two no-decisions in his last four starts.

The days when he was 9-1 and off to the best start of any Angel pitcher ever are a distant memory. He hasn’t won since June 19 and, although he held the Yankees to three runs Friday and was third in the AL in earned-run average entering the game, he has a 4.34 ERA in his last four outings.

“He’s been getting behind hitters,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said. “He’s been getting the ball up--especially at Oakland (June 29) and Kansas City (June 24).”

Said Langston: “I’m getting my strength back. I went through a period where I didn’t feel I had good stuff but, tonight, I had my fastball back.

“On the road trip, I went through a period where I was reaching back for my fastball and it wasn’t there.”

But he gets a break now, figuring to work no more than two innings in Tuesday’s All-Star game and then not starting for the Angels until the finale of a four-game series in Cleveland July 18.

Said Rodgers: “It’s a good time to get him an extra few days and not cost us anything.”