Yankees Rough Up Finley : Baseball: Their six-run fifth inning helps them to an 11-7 victory over the Angels.

The Angels keep trying to tell themselves they’re in a pennant race.

They keep trying to tell themselves they’re due to go on a tear and scare the daylights out of the Texas Rangers.

They keep trying to tell themselves they can play with anybody, anytime, anywhere.

Then along come the New York Yankees, leaving the Angels to wonder whether they should shut up and forget all these silly thoughts.

The Yankees, showing the Angels that they’re now playing with the big boys, stopped the Angels’ three-game winning streak with an 11-7 victory Thursday night in front of 20,479 at Anaheim Stadium.

The most painful aspect of the defeat is that it hits the Angels (42-55) when their confidence has never been higher, coming after a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox.

Yet on a night that Jimmy Key (15-2) appeared vulnerable, giving up four runs (three earned) and 10 hits in six innings, he still became the major league’s first 15-game winner.

Instead of picking up a game on the division-leading Rangers, the Angels fell back into third place, remaining five games behind Texas, with perhaps only a few weeks to play.

“We need to get on a roll real quick because of the (pending) strike,” Angel third baseman Spike Owen said. “I’m not just talking about winning a few games in a row, but a real roll, like winning 12 of 13, 12 of 15.

“I sense a difference on our club, not only on the field, but in the dugout. It’s a different feeling from what I saw before. It just never felt like a pennant race before.

“There’s not too many times you can make up ground in the standings, and we’ve got too take advantage of those nights.”

Actually, considering that the Angels are in the American League West, there still figure to be plenty of those nights left, but the point was well made.

It might not be one of those classic Yankee-Red Sox races, or even a San Francisco-Atlanta race, but this still remains the closest the Angels have been to first place this late in a season since 1989.

“I think they’re starting to realize they can win,” Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “They’re realizing they really are in a pennant race.

“It’s a feeling you can’t take for granted. You ought to relish it, and take advantage of it.”

Instead, their self-esteem took a battering when the Yankees pummeled starter Chuck Finley in the fifth inning. The Yankees sent 11 batters to the plate, scoring six runs and producing five hits en route to Finley’s worst inning of the season.

Finley (7-9) gave up 10 hits and eight earned runs in 4 2/3 innings and kept alive the Angels’ streak of allowing a home run in 14 consecutive games.

The Angels, who produced 15 hits, trimmed the lead to 10-6 in the eighth inning and loaded the bases with two out for Bo Jackson, who had homered in the third. But reliever Bob Wickman struck him out.

The Angels, who scored in all but the first inning, simply could not overcome the fifth.

“Looking back on it, I’m very disappointed because that offense is wasted,” Finley said. “I’m not going to blame the offense, the defense or the overall team. I know I can win games, and I’m not doing that.

“I just haven’t thrown the ball consistently like I can, and it shows.”

The fifth began innocently enough when Mike Stanley led off by grounding out. Danny Tartabull walked. Jim Leyritz then doubled to left, driving in Tartabull and tying the score, 3-3.

Finley walked Paul O’Neill, then struck out Randy Velarde for the second out. The rest, Finley figured, would be easy with the bottom of the order due up.

But No. 8 hitter Mike Gallego hit a run-scoring, ground-rule double. Pat Kelly hit a two-run single and stole second base. Bernie Williams hit a run-scoring single and also stole second. Then Don Mattingly singled.

Lachemann yanked Finley before it got completely out of hand.

Reliever Scott Lewis stepped in and gave up a run-scoring double to Mike Stanley, making it 8-3. The inning finally came to an end when Tartabull flied to right.