Angels, Losers Again, Looking to Close a Big Deal Soon : Baseball: A’s win, 6-0. California going after Aguilera, Wetteland, Myers or Montgomery.

The Angels, realizing now they were only fooling themselves in believing they could contend without a closer--even in the American League West--are trying to acquire a proven veteran before Sunday’s trade deadline.

The Angels, according to highly placed sources, are focusing their attention on Rick Aguilera of the Minnesota Twins, John Wetteland of Montreal, Randy Myers of the Chicago Cubs and Jeff Montgomery of Kansas City. They are all available, and each have contracts through at least the 1995 season.

The Angels, who lost Tuesday to the Oakland Athletics, 6-0, for their fifth consecutive defeat, in front of 20,156 fans at Anaheim Stadium, recognize that time is of the essence.

The Angels not only are fading out of the American League West race, but need something to rejuvenate their spirits. The Angels, 42-59, dropped to season-high 17 games below .500, and are 6 1/2 games behind the division-leading Texas Rangers, equaling their season’s biggest deficit.

In the meantime, they gave up hope that right fielder Tim Salmon’s hamstring would improve by this week and placed him on the disabled list, retroactive to July 18. They recalled Garret Anderson, who was batting .346 with 10 homers and 82 runs batted in at triple-A Vancouver.

The Angels certainly could use more than Anderson and a closer to get back in the race, but if they don’t find a closer before the 1995 season, they’re convinced they’ll be in the same predicament next year.

The Angels’ hope is that most of the teams in the market for a closer get scared away because of the tentative Aug. 16 strike date, enabling them to acquire one before Sunday.

“I think if you’re going to win, you have to have a closer,” said Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann, who demoted Joe Grahe and will employ a bullpen-by-committee. “If you look at most of the teams who win, they have closers. If they don’t, you’ll hear and read that they’re looking for one.

“I think it’s a very, very important part of a ballclub.

“You look at Oakland. Tony (La Russa) is the master of the bullpen, but if he doesn’t have (Dennis) Eckersley in the back of it, it doesn’t work.”

This night, however, it wouldn’t have mattered if the Angels had Eckersley in their bullpen. The Angels were out of this game by the second inning, and the only lingering suspense was whether they would reach second base before the game’s conclusion.

La Russa ruined that challenge when he removed starter Steve Ontiveros after seven innings. Ontiveros (6-3), who was out of baseball in 1992, had restricted the Angels to only two singles.

The Angels were able to avoid the dubious embarrassment when second baseman Harold Reynolds--who was being showcased for a possible trade to Oakland--stretched a two-out single into a double off reliever Bob Welch in the eighth.

Yes, that was the highlight of the Angel offense, which was limited to three hits, suffering their first shutout since the last time they played these guys.

Incredibly, the Angels have now been shut out three consecutive games against Oakland, failing to score in the last 31 innings.

Meanwhile, Angel starter Chuck Finley (7-10) had one rotten inning, and it didn’t take long for him to realize it would haunt him. The Athletics, leading 1-0, scored five runs in the second inning, including a two-run double by former Angel Stan Javier, putting the game out of reach. Javier wound up with a career-high three doubles, tying the franchise record.

Finley yielded only one hit after the second inning through his eight-inning stint, but it didn’t matter.

“With Oakland and Texas coming up,” Finley said, “we thought this was a chance where we could get something going. I kind of threw that plan out the window tonight.”

Now, the Angels can only watch to see if the Athletics (45-54), the hottest team in baseball since June 16, can pull off one of the most dramatic comebacks in history. Remember, these guys were 16-40 on June 6.