Not Quite an Opener-and-Shut Case : Baseball: Trailing the Indians by eight runs in the ninth inning, the Angels come back--but still lose, 9-6.

The game was ugly, lopsided. There was absolutely no reason for anyone but the ushers to be hanging around past the sixth inning Monday at the Angels’ home opener.

Yet most of the 37,285 fans refused to leave Anaheim Stadium, hoping that one player might appear and save the day.

His name? Bo Jackson.

Jackson strode to the plate in position to culminate one of the greatest comebacks in franchise history. He struck out, but it was as if it didn’t matter.

The game will go down as a 9-6 defeat by the Cleveland Indians, but the Angels’ ninth-inning rally changed the day’s perception.

“We may get an ‘L’ in the ‘lost’ column but it was actually a victory,” Angel second baseman Harold Reynolds said. “I think the ninth inning was an epitome of what this club can do.”

The Angels struck out four times in the inning, never getting anything more than a single, but everything was done with a flair for the dramatic.

“Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something new comes up,” Cleveland Manager Mike Hargrove said.

Cleveland began the ninth with a 9-1 lead, but Angel pitcher Mark Langston--who will undergo arthroscopic elbow surgery today--told Jackson to get ready, that he would be pinch-hitting.

“I looked at him like he was crazy,” said Jackson, who’d spent the day on the bench.

Cleveland reliever Eric Plunk struck out Jim Edmonds and Dwight Smith, and then . . .

Tim Salmon walked. Chili Davis singled. Spike Owen singled. Eduardo Perez walked. Chris Turner struck out, but, the ball bounced past catcher Tony Pena, and Turner reached first on a passed ball.

Plunk then threw 11 pitches to Reynolds, nine of which were fouled back. The next went into right field for another run.

“I tried not to look at (Plunk’s) face,” Reynolds said. “But the one time I did, it was like, ‘Man, what are you doing?’ ”

Jose Mesa relieved Plunk and was greeted by a two-run single by Gary DiSarcina. Suddenly the score was 9-6, there were runners on first and third, and guess who was coming to the plate?

Jackson emerged from the dugout and the fans rose, delivering a thunderous ovation. They had been calling for him since the sixth inning, but Manager Buck Rodgers had wanted to wait for the right moment. This was it.

“I was hoping he’d hit another like the one in the Freeway Series,” Reynolds said. “If anyone can hit one out, it’s Bo. He’s got that timing and that flair.”

Hargrove, realizing that very thing, went to his bullpen and chose Steve Farr, who was Jackson’s teammate for five years in Kansas City. Farr, equally familiar with Jackson’s abilities, wasn’t about to add another chapter to the legend.

“There’s a little more pressure in that situation,” Farr said. “If you lose a game like that, it really looks bad. He’s a home run hitter. I wasn’t going to give him anything to hit.”

Said Jackson, “I went up there for one reason, and that was to try to tie the game. I wasn’t looking for a base hit. I was looking to hit (a homer).”

Farr started off with a slider in the dirt but Jackson swung and missed. Then, on a 3-2 pitch, Farr came back with the same pitch. Jackson swung again . . . and missed again, ending the game.

“They got away with this one,” Jackson said. “But to be poised and come back like we did, that says a lot about us. We didn’t pull it off, but we hung in there.

“We just can’t wait until the ninth inning to do something big.”

The Angels’ biggest immediate obstacle will be coping without Langston, who will have bone chips removed. Dr. Lewis Yocum, who will perform the surgery, expects Langston to return in six weeks.

“I don’t think he’ll have any problem coming back that quickly,” said Joe Magrane, who also is recovering from elbow surgery. “If there was ever a guy who was invincible, it’s Mark. He has just kept himself in such great shape.”

Magrane is expected to be returning quickly himself. He worked out before Monday’s game and said he’ll be ready to rejoin the rotation by the first week of May.

“It’s the best stuff I’ve had since coming back,” said Magrane, who underwent arthroscopic surgery Feb. 15. “I don’t even think about the elbow anymore. I’m close.”

Meanwhile, the Angels will have to hope there are few starting performances such as John Dopson’s. He yielded eight hits--two of them home runs--and six runs (five earned) in 5 1/3 innings. Reliever Bob Patterson fared little better, yielding three runs and a homer in two-thirds of an inning.

Rookie right fielder Manny Ramirez, quickly becoming a household name in Cleveland, hit a home run off each of them, driving in five runs.

“I don’t know who that masked man in right field was, but we better catch that name because he took us to the cleaners,” Rodgers said. “We just got our butts kicked today. They out-hit us. They out-pitched us. They out-gloved us.

“But everyone knows that at the end, we gave it one hell of a shot.”

* DODGERS RAINED OUT: Wet weather in St. Louis gave the Dodgers the opportunity to get in some sorely needed batting practice. C4