Angels Outlast Athletics : Baseball: Butcher keeps Oakland in check, then Edmonds’ single in 10th provides 8-7 victory.

The season is only a week old, but already the Angel offense is getting caught in a numbers crunch--through six games it ranked last in the American League in batting (.202), runs scored (18), hits per game (6.5) and runs batted in (16).

One look at Wednesday night’s Game 7 lineup, which included Spike Owen (.000), Rex Hudler (.000) and Andy Allanson (.083), didn’t inspire much confidence that the Angels would spend the evening high-fiving around home plate.

It didn’t, but the Angels’ old reliable duo and one old newcomer did. Chili Davis lined a single to center and Tim Salmon followed with a homer deep into the left-field bleachers in the bottom of he seventh inning to put a little charge back into the Angel offense.

Then Tony Phillips, 36, the outfielder acquired for Chad Curtis in spring training, lined to center to score pinch-runner Kevin Flora with the tying run in the eighth.

Then in the bottom of the 10th inning, Jim Edmonds’ single scored Phillips with the winning run and the Angels defeated the Athletics, 8-7. Mike Butcher, who came on in the 10th, earned the victory, raising his record to 3-0. Carlos Reyes (0-1) took the loss.

But until then, the Angels had managed only five hits through six innings--three of those didn’t even reach the outfield--and the Angels trailed the A’s 7-6 going into the bottom of the eighth inning.

“I’m concerned that we’re not putting the ball in play more,” Lachemann said before the game. “It’s early in the year, so we just have to keep working, keep grinding.

“There’s no shortcuts. We just have to keep coming out for early hitting, and we need to do a little better on pitch selection. You don’t have to swing at every strike.”

The Angels’ struggling offense may not be Lachemann’s only concern, though. Two Angels seemed to lose their concentration in an embarrassing sixth inning, making the kinds of mental mistakes Lachemann despises.

First it was Edmonds, the center fielder who made a spectacular catch before crashing into the fence in Tuesday night’s game against the A’s. With runners on second and third in the sixth Wednesday night, Rickey Henderson lined a single to center.

It appeared Edmonds would have a shot at throwing Mike Gallego out at home, but he bobbled the ball and Gallego scored easily, giving Oakland a 7-4 lead. To compound matters, Edmonds made a rainbow throw back to the infield that went well over the head of cut-off man J.T. Snow.

If that had Lachemann steaming, he was probably fuming over the next gaffe. Reliever Russ Springer struck out Stan Javier, and catcher Andy Allanson flipped the ball over Javier’s head toward the mound and began jogging to the dugout.

One problem, though: That was the second out. As a wave of laughter rumbled through the crowd of 12,864, a sheepish Allanson returned to his position. But Lachemann replaced him with Jorge Fabregas to start the next inning.

Despite some light hitting, the Angels at least deserved some points for offensive efficiency Wednesday. They scored three runs in the first inning on one hit--Tony Phillips’ bloop single that dropped in front of Henderson down the left-field line.

Davis and Salmon each walked with two outs, and Snow grounded a ball to the shortstop hole, where Mike Bordick fielded it but threw it past Gallego at second base.

The ball rolled all the way to the wall down the right-field line, giving Phillips, Davis and Salmon time to score for a 3-0 Angel advantage.

But Angel starter Mark Langston struggled with his control--he walked six in a 4 2/3-inning stint that required 94 pitches--and couldn’t hold the lead.

Ruben Sierra’s double to the left-field corner, which barely eluded the glove of the diving Phillips, scored Henderson, who had walked, and Javier, who had reached on a fielder’s choice to cut the lead to 3-2.

Henderson later walked with one out in the fifth, and after Javier’s fielder’s choice and a walk to Sierra, Oakland first baseman Mark McGwire deposited an 0-2 Langston offering into the left-field bleachers for a three- run homer and a 5-3 lead.

Lachemann replaced Langston with Mike Bielecki, who allowed an infield single to Craig Pauquette and hit Gallego with a pitch in the sixth.