Angels’ Finley Shoulders Blame : Baseball: Pitcher knows he needs to be successful for the team to do well, yet he endures another rough outing.

Chuck Finley feels no added burden of responsibility now that Mark Langston won’t be available to the Angels for six weeks.

Or so he said after a 5-4 loss to Cleveland on Tuesday night at Anaheim Stadium.

Truth be told, Finley came to spring training knowing the Angels needed all the help they could get from him. And he was fully prepared to deliver.

Perhaps that’s why he was so disappointed after his second consecutive lackluster start. He felt he let his teammates down Tuesday, falling into a 3-0 rut in the first inning.

Throw out the first inning and Finley fared OK against the hard-hitting Indians. But that rocky trip through the Indian batting order wiped out anything good that followed, as far as Finley was concerned.

Three runs, three hits, eight batters faced, 43 pitches thrown--those were the disturbing results from the top of the first. Never mind that the only ball driven to the outfield was Albert Belle’s run-scoring sacrifice fly.

“I thought it was a (lousy) outing,” Finley said. “Maybe my standards are too high, but I don’t appreciate putting my teammates in a hole like that. It was 3-0 before we had a chance to swing the sticks.

“After the first inning I just kind of started over.”

Finley placed the blame for the rough start on his left arm.

“I don’t know what it was,” he said. “My arm was just dead. It didn’t have any life in it.”

He felt better later on, throwing with more zip in giving up four runs and seven hits in seven innings.

In two starts, he is 0-1 with a 6.94 earned-run average.

No reason to panic, even with Langston sidelined after undergoing elbow surgery Tuesday, according to Finley and Manager Buck Rodgers.

“By July, I’ll look back and it’s not a big deal,” Finley said. “It’s all out in the wash.”

Said Rodgers: “As long as he’s healthy I’m not concerned. It’s just a matter of time before he can work it out.”

Finley and Rodgers agree that there’s more to the Angels’ “Mark and Chuck and You’re Outta Luck” rotation.

Finley simply despised the notion of a three-run first inning, and he’s not ready to settle for bouncing back over the course of the next six innings. He knows that’s not living up to expectations--his own and the those of his teammates.

Rodgers wants to see what happens with starters Phil Leftwich, who pitches tonight, Mark Leiter, Brian Anderson and John Dopson before passing judgment.

“I think it depends on how we do with the other guys,” Rodgers said. “If the other guys win their starts, there’s no problem. It’s all relative. We’re .500 (4-4) and Finley is 0-1.”

The Angels are still trying to work a deal that would involve trading first baseman J.T. Snow, now at triple-A Vancouver, for a starting pitcher. But they haven’t been successful. Until then, they’re stuck with what they’ve got.

Tuesday, Finley didn’t like what he saw and hopes he’s seen the last of it.

“I know I can throw the ball better than that,” he said. “It doesn’t concern me as much as it disappoints me.”