BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Loss of Langston Leaves Team Questioning Its Prospects

The earthquake-damaged scoreboard is not scheduled to be replaced at Anaheim Stadium until late summer.

As the Angels opened their home season amid the usual panoply Monday, the gaping cavity in the stadium’s left field upper deck seemed symbolic.

With Mark Langston scheduled for elbow surgery today, followed by six weeks of rehabilitation, there is a comparable cavity in an Angel rotation that wasn’t the deepest or most stable even before the sobering Langston situation.

In the wake of Brian Anderson’s unexpected and uplifting performance in Milwaukee on Sunday and the promise of a 4-2 trip against the Brewers and Minnesota Twins, the American League Central’s two weakest teams, there was a hint of the cold reality that faces the Angels and their Langston-less rotation in the home opener.

Right-hander John Dopson, who pitched seven shutout innings in a 4-1 victory over the Twins on Wednesday, lasted only 5 1/3 innings in this one, gave up eight hits and six runs.

The Cleveland Indians, a regenerated power in the realigned Central, built a 9-1 lead, then survived a five-run Angel ninth to win, 9-6.

It came down to Bo Jackson, who struck out on a Steve Farr slider for the final out while representing the tying run.

The concern, of course, is that the Angels could be looking at budget-type deficits on a consistent basis.

Their rotation, Manager Buck Rodgers acknowledged, was in something of an experimental and trial phase, Langston or not.

Two Angel starters, Dopson and Mark Leiter, are coming off arm surgery and were released by their previous teams. Phil Leftwich was 7-7 in triple A last year and 4-6 with the Angels. Anderson, the No. 1 draft choice of last June, was pitching for Wright State a year ago.

Southpaw Joe Magrane might be ready to rejoin the rotation in early May, but he is recovering from elbow surgery for the second time in four years and has a Major League record of 22-31 since the start of the 1990 season.

“We’re not trying to fool anyone,” Rodgers said. “We’re not blessed with Atlanta’s pitching, but we think we can get by for six weeks. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll have to work through it. We need Langston in the second half, and I think it’s thrown a challenge at the rest of them. I think that’s the way they look at it.”

The manager has to paint it the best way he can. He has to hope the mental impact of Langston’s loss doesn’t beat the Angels even before Anderson and the others deliver a pitch.

“I was worried about that in Milwaukee and still am some, but the thing Brian Anderson did was to come in and say, ‘Hey, it’s not as bad as you think,’ ” Rodgers said.

“I mean, it’s not a good feeling to have one of your horses go down, but it helps to have the guy replacing him make an immediate contribution.”

The questions go beyond Anderson, of course, but if the 21-year-old southpaw pitches as he did against Milwaukee, he can help Chuck Finley ease the pressure on Dopson, Leiter and Leftwich.

Special assignment scout Bob Harrison, who saw Anderson pitch three times for Wright State last year, said Monday:

“The reason I think he can pitch up here so soon is that he throws strikes whenever he wants to. He makes it look easy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a young pitcher with better command, and he has more confidence than five guys should have.”

Said General Manager Bill Bavasi: “I don’t want to bank everything on the way he pitched in Milwaukee, but it’s also a fact that he almost made the club out of spring training. We’re not afraid to send him out there.”

The Angels, of course, have no choice. Not only do they lose Langston, they have to hope their top prospect, their only prospect close to being ready, can digest this force feeding. Bavasi said he is following the market, but there are virtually no pitchers available.

Asked about the mental impact of the Langston loss, he said: “That’s a legitimate question. I’ve thought about it, but don’t know what to do about it.

“Mark has stepped up so often that I’m sure the others hope they can step up for him, and the first guy (Anderson) did a great job.”

Dopson wasn’t as successful. He stood at his locker later and said Langston represented a significant loss, “but you try not to think about it. There’s enough pressure without thinking you have to fill his shoes. I mean, you hope to be able to pick up the slack, but you can only do the best you can do.”

Will this group’s best be good enough? That, too, is a legitimate question.