A’s Still Alive in Baseball’s Sorriest Division : Angels: Oakland only four games out in West after winning, 10-2, for 11th victory in 13 games.

There’s no Catfish Hunter or Rollie Fingers, no Dave Stewart or Jose Canseco. But can the Oakland A’s be far from Dynasty III, the sequel of those Bay Area feel-good hits of the summers of ‘72-’73-’74 and ‘88-’89-’90?

In the American League West, where you can play .429 baseball and still be only two games out of first place--see “Angels” in your standings this morning--the A’s have made a remarkable return to the race. After trailing by 12 1/2 games only two weeks ago, they have won 11 of 13 and now are only four games behind first-place Texas in baseball’s sorriest division.

How sorry? The Angels were 6 1/2 games behind two weeks ago, are 7-7 since and trail by two.

Monday night, the A’s beat the Angels, 10-2, in front of 15,141 at the Oakland Coliseum, powered by an established star of summers past and a 22-year-old who is beginning to live up to the potential that propelled him into the big leagues as a teen-ager.

Rickey Henderson made more than a cameo appearance with a single, a double, a home run, two runs batted in and three runs . . . in the first three innings. And right-hander Todd Van Poppel, the A’s first-round draft pick in 1990, rebounded from a shaky start to pick up his third victory in his last four starts.

“Right now, (Oakland Manager) Tony LaRussa is probably doing a better job than he ever has,” Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “Starting like they did and now they’re right in there. It’s easier to keep a club winning than it is to pick up one that’s scuffling and get them back in the hunt.

“Granted, the division has something to do with it, but they’re playing really well. They’re on a roll and we didn’t do anything to control them. They beat us up pretty good.”

Van Poppel, whose earned-run average was 16.62 after three starts, is 4-6 after giving up seven hits and two runs in seven innings Monday night. The Angels countered with their own 22-year-old sensation, but Brian Anderson, after winning three of his first four starts, has fallen from grace and is 5-3.

The first time he faced Oakland, Anderson lasted only two innings because he tried to make a barehanded catch of a ground ball and suffered a broken thumb. This time, the rookie left-hander didn’t even make it two innings, but the only things hurting were his ego and earned-run average. He gave up eight hits and five earned runs in 1 2/3 innings.

“It was a combination of getting behind in the count and then trying to hit spots instead of throwing to spots,” Anderson said. “I didn’t really get through the ball and a lot of the pitches that started out in tight kind of faded back across the plate.

“I haven’t had a lot of luck with these guys. At least I came out healthy, that’s a plus. The only plus.”

It appeared Van Poppel might be in for a long night when the first two batters he faced singled and two of the next three flied out to the warning track.

“Making it through that first inning, that was a big deal,” Van Poppel said. “That could have been a very big first inning for them, but it turned out to be a big plus for us.”

As it was, it turned out to be a short evening for Anderson, who gave up a run in the first and four more in the second as the A’s sent 10 batters to the plate.

The top four batters in the Oakland lineup--Henderson, Stan Javier, Geronimo Berroa and Ruben Sierra--all had two RBIs and all but Sierra had an extra-base hit.

“It was my fault,” Anderson said. “I made bad pitches and I got what I deserved.”

Maybe, but the great thing about this division is you don’t always get what you deserve. In fact, you might even win a pennant when you deserve last place.