Embarrassed Angels Routed : Baseball: The Yankees get five home runs and, with Abbott, hand them their worst defeat of the season, 12-1.

There was actually a time, Angel historians will tell you, when the Jim Abbott trade was looking good, Mark Langston was apologizing for underestimating his teammates, and the Angels were making fools out of their critics.

Would you believe a week ago?

“That’s why this is embarrassing,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said Thursday after watching his team lose again, 12-1, to the New York Yankees. “It’s happened so fast. Right now, we’ve got some guys who are embarrassed, and they should be.”

The Angels, losing their most lopsided game of the season, don’t resemble the team that was only two games out of first place at the All-Star break. They have lost six consecutive games, are six games below .500 (44-50) for the first time this season and, at seven games out of first place, are moving dangerously close to last place.

Is it too late for Langston to issue recalls on his apology?

“I can’t believe it’s turned like this,” Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina said. “It’s become our worst nightmare.

“It’s become a snowball effect, and it’s getting worse by the day. The whole attitude of the team stinks right now.

“We keep sitting back and waiting for bad things to happen. It’s like we look at each other and say, ‘How are we going to lose? How are we going to get beat? What’s going to happen this time?’

“And sure enough, they keep happening.”

The Angels, in what has become their custom on this trip, had yet another starting pitcher in trouble at the game’s outset. They loaded the bases in the first inning, and Abbott had not retired a batter.

Just when they were wondering how they could possibly foul up this situation, Tim Salmon, batting cleanup in the Angels’ revamped lineup, grounded into a double play, scoring one run. Chili Davis flied to right. The inning was over.

“We get the bases loaded like that, and we still got guys trying to hit home runs,” Angel catcher Ron Tingley said. “When we got only one run out of all that, you could sense the letdown.

“And when the Yankees got that run right back in the bottom of the inning, it was like, ‘We let those guys right back in the game. Damn it, we did it again.’ ”

Then the Angels unraveled:

Third inning: Danny Tartabull hit a two-out, three-run homer, followed by a solo homer by Paul O’Neill. Russ Springer (1-5), making his first start at Yankee Stadium since the Abbott trade, left after 5 1/3 innings, having surrendered seven earned runs.

Sixth inning: Mike Stanley greeted reliever Doug Linton with a three-run homer.

Seventh inning: Don Mattingly hit a three-run homer for his 200th homer, and for the second time, the Yankees made it back-to-back home runs when Tartabull homered.

It was the first time since 1988 that the Yankees had hit five homers in a game at Yankee Stadium, last performing the feat against, yep, the Angels.

The Angels, who have been outscored, 39-15, on this trip, made it look worse with their disappearing act at the plate. Their last 15 batters were retired in order. Abbott (7-8) yielded five hits in eight innings.

For the Angels’ attitude, well, let’s just say they believe they will win. They just can’t pinpoint when it will happen again.

“Right now we’ve got a fear of failure,” Rodgers said, “and you can’t do that and expect to play the game.”

The players blame themselves for their demise, saying they suddenly have forgotten it’s a team game. For some, there have been acts of selfishness. Others are trying too hard.

“It’s going to be a long year if we keep playing like this,” DiSarcina said, “and it isn’t even August yet. I can’t believe some of the stuff we’re doing. We get up there and just swing at the first pitch we see.

“We used to come back on teams, but now it’s like as soon as we get down, we become complacent. The thing that hurts so bad was that we spent the whole first half proving everybody wrong, playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.

“Now, look at us.”