Sanderson Haunts the Angels, 7-1 : Baseball: Pitcher they released last season stops them on three hits for the White Sox. Fabregas is injured in play at plate.

The Angels stared at the scoreboard Sunday afternoon in disbelief. The feeling of frustration had passed. This was now embarrassing.

The game was in the seventh inning, and they were being no-hit by former teammate Scott Sanderson.

Angel starter Chuck Finley said, “Guys were coming back to the bench saying, ‘Scott Sanderson, you’ve got to be kidding me.’ ”

The Angels finally foiled the no-hitter when Chili Davis hit a two-out double in the seventh, but it did nothing to ease Finley’s disgust once the Chicago White Sox’s 7-1 victory at Comiskey Park was complete.

“It was almost like we were all so happy that we won three of four,” Finley said. “ ‘That’s good enough. Oh well, let’s throw this one away.’

“It looked like we weren’t into it, which was sad, because we had a chance to do something. Not to take anything away from Scott, but it’s like we just conceded the game.

“If these comments make some people unhappy, I really don’t care. The people who are unhappy are the people I’m not talking about.”

Finley acknowledged his share of blame, after yielding 11 hits and seven runs--six earned--in 4 1/3 innings.

“I’m not pointing fingers at anyone,” said Finley, who is 5-6 with a 4.54 earned-run average. “I probably had as much to do with it as anybody. I was disappointed in my outing, but more disappointed in the whole overall atmosphere.

“When you’re nine games under .500, and you have the chance to take all four games (against the White Sox), you go for it. You look back at teams that end up winning a lot of games, and they have that killer instinct.

“We don’t have that.”

The Angels, who won four of the seven games on their trip, self-destructed in the fourth inning when they incurred yet another bizarre injury to one of their catchers.

Leading 2-0, the White Sox had runners on first and third with one out when Joey Cora dropped a bunt down the third base line. As Darrin Jackson broke for the plate, third baseman Rex Hudler charged the ball, but his off-balance throw bounced in the dirt.

Catcher Jorge Fabregas reached to pick up the ball, and Jackson slid into home, stood up, and the top of his helmet slammed into Fabregas’ mouth.

A dazed Fabregas, who lost two teeth, began walking away while the ball kept rolling toward the backstop. The Angel bench started screaming for someone to pick up the ball. Bob Zupcic, who was on first, kept running before the Angels realized that Fabregas was incapable of retrieving the ball.

“Guys were yelling, ‘Get the ball! Get the ball!’ ” said teammate Chris Turner, “but he was out of it. He was looking toward the dugout, dazed.”

By the time first baseman J.T. Snow grabbed the ball, Zupcic was on his way home. Snow threw the ball to Hudler, but it was too late. The White Sox had two runs on a bunt, and Fabregas had to leave the game for an examination by the White Sox team dentist before meeting the team at the airport.

“I’m sorry I got him messed up like that with my throw,” said Hudler, who was taken out of the game in the seventh inning because of a tender shoulder. “He lost his teeth because of my throw. I apologized to Finley, and everybody on the field.”

The Angels released Sanderson last July after he lost nine consecutive decisions following a 7-2 start.

Sanderson, 37, joined the White Sox in February, and spent Sunday letting the Angels know they might have made a mistake. Sanderson pitched a three-hit complete game, and at 5-2, now has as many victories as any Angel pitcher.

“I think there was some interest in me,” Sanderson said of the Angels this spring, “but not a high enough level. . . . That’s all right, this worked out the best for me anyway.

“It’s not just a coincidence that I keep pitching for teams that are near or in first place.”