Angels Get an Unwanted Break : Baseball: Team loses game and DiSarcina all in one afternoon. Shortstop has a broken thumb.

Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina turned the inning-ending double play Thursday, but instead of stopping and exchanging high-fives in the dugout, he kept on running.

Off the field . . . past his teammates in the dugout . . . up the stairs to the clubhouse . . . directly into the trainer’s room.

Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

DiSarcina, who had played 211 consecutive games--the fourth-longest active streak in the major leagues--realized he had just played his last game of the season, a 9-4 defeat to the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

DiSarcina sustained a broken right thumb when he was hit in the top of the fourth inning by Oriole starter Ben McDonald’s pitch. His hand was placed in a splint, and he left for Los Angeles, where he’ll be examined today by hand specialist Dr. Norman Zemel at the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic.

“I don’t think he’ll be back this season,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said. “I don’t know whether they’ll have to put a pin in it or not, but I think we’re talking about at least six weeks.”

The Angels will attempt to replace DiSarcina with Rod Correia and Kurt Stillwell at shortstop, Rodgers said. He’ll have both in the everyday lineup, and will alternate their positions--shortstop and second base--each series.

Catcher Chris Turner is expected to replace DiSarcina on the roster, but Rodgers said a decision may not be made until this weekend.

DiSarcina, whose consecutive-game streak also was the fourth longest in Angel history, crumbled at the plate when he was hit by the 2-and-2 pitch with two out in the fourth. Trainer Ned Bergert and Rodgers rushed out, and McDonald walked over to apologize, but after several minutes, DiSarcina convinced them he was OK.

Although the thumb was unknowingly broken, DiSarcina stayed in the game, eventually scored on Chad Curtis’ single, and slapped hands with everyone in the dugout after giving the Angels a 3-2 lead.

“I figured he was all right,” second baseman Stillwell said. “I mean, he was slapping hands pretty good.”

DiSarcina, his thumb starting to throb, stayed in the field the entire inning and ended it by fielding Mark McLemore’s ground ball, and flipping it to Stillwell for the double play. It probably was his final play as an Angel in 1993, finishing the season with a .238 batting average, scoring 44 runs and driving in a career-high 45.

“Gary knew something was wrong right there,” Correia said. “He took off his glove and ran up the runaway. When Gary does that, you know something’s wrong, because Gary doesn’t do that unless he’s hurt.

“I mean, he turned a double-play with a broken thumb, that’s what kind of player he is. Not too many people would have done that.”

DiSarcina was taken to the X-ray room at Camden Yards. By the time McDonald went to check on him, DiSarcina’s hand already was in a cast.

“I feel bad about hitting DiSarcina,” said McDonald, who also hit Tim Salmon in the right hand in the seventh inning.

McDonald spoke to DiSarcina afterward. “I said, I’m sorry,’ and he said, ‘I know you weren’t trying to hit me.’ But you still feel bad when you know someone is out for the rest of the season.”

The Angels (57-69) managed to lose again for the 25th time in the last 38 games, and once again, it was the bullpen that was responsible.

Phil Leftwich, pitching in front of 15 friends and family members from Lynchburg, Va., left the game with a 4-2 lead and two out in the seventh. Two pitches later, Harold Baines tied the score by hitting an opposite-field homer off left-hander Ken Patterson.

The Orioles, who had only four hits in the first two games of the series, broke it open in the eighth by scoring five runs off Gene Nelson (0-4), Steve Frey and Joe Grahe, completing a day of misery for the Angels.