12-3 Loss Is Moving for Angels

General Manager Bill Bavasi has resisted the temptation, wanting so badly to believe the Angels can win the weak American League West title without making any moves.

Now, he acknowledges, he might be left with no choice.

It doesn’t take Connie Mack to figure out that if the Angels really are serious about contending, even in this division, changes must be made.

The Angels, 12-3 losers to the New York Yankees in a game Friday night that was not as close as the score indicated, sent 34,750 away from Anaheim Stadium realizing the disparity between the two clubs.

“If there are veterans that we feel who’ll fit in,” Bavasi said, “we’ll make the move. We’ve got some things working, and I can tell you that we’re trying.

“The money is not going to be a problem. Ownership says that if it makes sense, and it will help us win, they have no problem with it.

“We’re very willing to pay for talent, but I won’t overpay to an extreme.”

The Angels were involved in serious negotiations with the Philadelphia Phillies for veteran pitcher Shawn Boskie, but decided to pass, holding out for a better deal. They instead tried their hand with rookie Andrew Lorraine, who graduated five weeks ago from Stanford.

It took only four pitches for the Angels to realize it might be a mistake. Leadoff hitter Bernie Williams hit the fourth pitch of the game over the right-field fence.

The Angels then watched Mike Stanley hit the first of his two home runs in the second inning.

They watched Lorraine’s moment of glory in the third when he struck out Don Mattingly with the bases loaded.

And finally, they couldn’t bear to watch, pulling Lorraine after only 4 2/3 innings in his first big league start, yielding eights hits and seven earned runs, including three homers and four walks.

“If I attribute it to jitters,” Lorraine said, “it’s an excuse. From the outset, I’d make a good pitch, and a bad pitch, that’s not my game. I’m usually consistent.”

Said Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann: “If he learned a lesson today, and he learned he can trust his stuff, maybe then he will be around here for a while.”

The Angels, 42-56, not forgetting their manners, comforted Lorraine in a way only they could, demonstrating how something like this could happen to anybody.

The Yankees tormented every pitcher the Angels threw into the game, scoring two more runs in the fourth, two runs in the fifth, three runs in the sixth, and two more in the eighth.

Why, the Angels’ best closer of the night was the Yankees’ appalling base-running. They were thrown out three times on the basepaths.

It enabled Angel rookie right fielder Jim Edmonds to produce three assists, one shy of the major league record. The last major league outfielder to have three assists in a game was Cleveland’s Sam Langford on May 1, 1928.

The Yankees, who finished the game with 17 hits, had 14--including four home runs--through the first six innings alone.

Yankee designated hitter Stanley had two home runs that traveled nearly 800 feet by the fifth inning. Yankee third baseman Wade Boggs equaled his season-high of four hits by the sixth inning. Yankee center fielder Williams had a season-high four hits by the eighth inning.

Meanwhile, Scott Kamieniecki yielded only four hits through seven innings. His only mistake was a two-run homer to Bo Jackson, who hit his third in as many games.