There’s a Catch to It as Angels Win, 4-1 : Baseball: Defensive play fires up Langston, who stymies the Blue Jays for eight innings.

So which team is in the midst of a pennant race, anyway?

One starting pitcher snared an inning-ending popup, shook his glove as if to say “Gotcha!” then spiked the ball to the turf as he sprinted off the field.

The other starter could only kick the Anaheim Stadium grass in frustration.

In the end, it was hard to tell what hurt the Toronto Blue Jays more: Mark Langston’s determined pitching or four errors and generally uninspired play.

The Angels took both gladly, defeating the American League East-leading Blue Jays, 4-1, before 23,834 Friday night.

Langston limited the American League’s second-best hitting club to six hits and one run with five strikeouts in an eight-inning performance that gave him his 15th victory.

Joe Grahe pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save.

But the Angels might not have won if not for Langston’s catch of Tony Fernandez’s popup, ending a Blue Jay threat in the eighth inning. Langston turned the moment the ball was hit and sprinted behind the mound, waved the infielders off and made the catch.

“As soon as he hit it, I saw that it was my ball,” Langston said. “I could have leaped out of the stadium. . . . my adrenaline was really flowing right there.”

The eighth inning could have turned into a mess, but Langston simply wouldn’t let it happen. He got the Angels into trouble, then he got them right out of it.

First, he walked the first two batters, Rickey Henderson and Devon White. Next, he gave up a run-scoring single to Paul Molitor, his fourth hit of the game. The big news was that it was the first earned run he had given up in 22 innings. It also brought Toronto within 2-1 and the Blue Jays seemed primed to wreck Langston’s night.

But Joe Carter flied out to shallow right field. In case White thought about tagging up, Tim Salmon reminded him of his arm strength by firing a strike to cutoff man J.T. Snow.

Then, John Olerud, the top hitter in the major leagues with a .382 average, struck out on a called strike for the inning’s second out.

Fernandez, a .288 hitter, popped up to end the inning.

“That was it,” Langston said. “That was everything I had right there.”

In the bottom of the inning, Torey Lovullo hit a two-run homer over the right-center-field wall for a 4-1 Angel lead. It was Lovullo’s first homer since June 16 and only his fourth this season.

When Lovullo reached home plate, he gave Snow, who scored ahead of him, a ferocious high 10, then slapped hands with his teammates in the dugout.

Langston and Toronto starter Jack Morris (7-12) each struggled in the second inning. The difference was that Langston got the out when he needed it most, Alfredo Griffin hitting into a force play with two out and two on.

Rookie catcher Chris Turner’s two-out double against Morris scored Lovullo and the Angels had a 1-0 lead.

Each pitcher settled down after that inning, with Langston the stronger of the two. After the second inning, no Toronto baserunners got past first base until the eighth, and Langston retired eight consecutive batters in one stretch.

Morris gave up a run-scoring single by Chad Curtis in the seventh. Morris kicked the ground in disgust after Curtis’ grounder, which extended his hitting streak to 16 games, slipped under his glove and into center field. Turner, who had singled to lead off the inning, scored to give the Angels a 2-0 lead.