Angels Again Are Denied Any Leeway at Fenway, 2-1

Left fielder Luis Polonia sat silently eating his postgame dinner Tuesday after the Angels’ 2-1 defeat by the Boston Red Sox, allowing his teammates to do all of the talking.

He listened to them gripe about bad luck. He listened to them whine about Scott Fletcher’s weak grounder in the ninth inning that scored the winning run. He listened to them questioning one another.

Polonia quietly excused himself and walked to his locker shaking his head. His teammates can make all of the excuses they want, Polonia says, but the real reason for the Angels’ collapse is obvious.

“We’re choking,” Polonia calmly said, “and it’s getting worse by the day. It’s like everyone’s feeling the pressure now, and we’re falling apart.

“It was easy in the first half because no one expected anything, so we kind of cruised. But people have expectations of us now because we’re in a pennant race, and look what’s happening.

“If we don’t start winning on this trip, and I mean real quick, we can forget about a pennant race. The season will be over.”

The Angels, losing their fourth consecutive game and fifth on this trip, have fallen six games behind the Chicago White Sox, the furthest they have been out of first place this season. Instead of a division race, they are peeking over their shoulders at the last-place Minnesota Twins, only 4 1/2 games behind them.

“You can tell guys are feeling the pressure,” outfielder Stan Javier said. “When you get in a pennant race, that’s a time where you separate the men from the boys. That sounds kind of harsh, but it’s the truth.

“And right now, we’re not handling the pressure.”

The Angels, who have lost 16 of their last 21 road games, continued to fail in the clutch, producing 11 hits but only one with a baserunner in scoring position.

They wasted rookie Hilly Hathaway’s performance--seven hits and one run in six innings--by stranding nine runners and seeing three players thrown out at third base, including two ill-advised steal attempts.

Perhaps the most serious offense occurred in the eighth. The Angels tied the score at 1 on Damion Easley’s one-out single, leaving runners on first and second. Pinch-runner Jim Walewander then tried to steal third and was thrown out easily, and the inning ended with Rene Gonzales grounding out to second.

The Red Sox quickly ended the Angels’ misery in the ninth when Scott Cooper led off with a double against reliever Gene Nelson (0-3). John Valentin sacrificed Cooper to third, and the Angels intentionally walked pinch-hitter Mo Vaughn.

Fletcher, who already had three hits in the game, hit a bouncer over Nelson’s head toward the left side of second base. Second baseman Torey Lovullo charged the ball, and, off-balance, flipped it to Nelson. Fletcher was halfway to the dugout when the throw arrived, to the delight of the 31,632 fans at Fenway Park.

The Angels, who never have gone an entire season without winning a game at Fenway, will be grateful to leave town. And no one will be more eager to leave than shortstop Gary DiSarcina, whose Fenway horrors continue.

DiSarcina, who grew up in New England, left seven runners stranded Tuesday night and failed to hit the ball out of the infield. He now owns a career .208 batting average at Fenway, with more errors--four--than runs batted in--three.

“We’ve all gone through that where we play (badly) in front of our friends and family,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said, “and I’m going to let him battle through that. Some guys just can’t do it.

“That’s what I told (Tim) Wallach when he signed with the Dodgers. I said, ‘Why are you going to play in L.A.? You were always (awful) in L.A., and now you want to play 81 games there?’ ”

DiSarcina tried to minimize his distractions by staying at his Cape Cod home, ordering his family not to give out his phone number. It hasn’t changed a thing. He is batting .067 at Fenway this season with no RBIs and two errors.

“Maybe in five years the novelty will wear off, and this will be just like any other city,” DiSarcina said. “But right now, I’ll just be glad to get out of here without psychiatric help.”