Angels Make It Safe for Langston : Baseball: He pitches seven strong innings to win first game, and Lee Smith earns fifth save in 3-2 victory.

When Angel starters used to leave games with one-run leads after seven innings, they weren’t sure what they needed most, an ice pack or a blind fold. Mark Langston could have used both Tuesday night.

An Angel bullpen that for much of this young season has been vastly improved over last year’s gave Langston a good scare until closer Lee Smith, shaky for much of the ninth inning, finally slammed the door shut on the Texas Rangers to preserve the Angels’ 3-2 victory at Anaheim Stadium.

Smith, whose fifth save gave Langston his first victory after two no-decisions, struck out Dean Palmer to open the ninth then walked Mark McLemore.

McLemore stole second, and after Smith walked pinch-hitter Shawn Hare, the big right-hander slumped over the mound, his glove on his left knee and right hand, with the ball, on his right.

Pitching Coach Chuck Hernandez came out to check on Smith, but there was no thought given to taking him out. Smith then came back to strike out Benji Gil, and with what was left of a crowd of 11,943 on its feet as he ran the count to 2-2 on Otis Nixon, Smith got Nixon to ground to short to end the game.

The Angels could have avoided the harrowing finish by scoring an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh but failed to bring Damion Easley home after his lead-off triple to center field.

With the Ranger infield drawn in, pinch-hitter Garret Anderson grounded to second off reliever Roger McDowell, Chili Davis was intentionally walked, Tim Salmon struck out on a breaking ball, and Myers flew to left off reliever Terry Burrows.

But the decision to bat Anderson that inning--Rex Hudler was originally sent to pinch hit for Jim Edmonds, but Manager Marcel Lachemann replaced Hudler with the left-handed-hitting Anderson after Texas Manager Johnny Oates brought in the right-handed McDowell--proved fortuitous for the Angels.

Lachemann inserted Anderson into left field and moved left fielder Tony Phillips to center to start the eighth. Jeff Frye led off with a hit down the left-field line off reliever Mike Butcher and tried to stretch it to a double.

But Anderson, after fielding the ball near the line, made a near 360-degree turn and fired a perfect throw to second baseman Easley to nail Frye. Though replays showed that Frye appeared to have his left foot on the bag as Easley applied the tag to his lower back, he was called out by umpire Chuck Meriwether.

Lachemann pulled Butcher after one batter and went immediately to left-hander Mitch Williams, who got Will Clark to ground to first then gave up a single to Mickey Tettleton.

Lachemann hopped out of the dugout and signaled for right-hander Troy Percival, who struck out Ivan Rodriguez to end the inning and pave the way for Smith to pitch the ninth.

Langston, who yielded five hits and struck out four in seven innings, made only two mistakes but couldn’t have timed them better. The left-hander got his first pitch of the fourth inning up to Clark, who ripped it off the facade of the right-center-field bleachers for his second home run of the season.

Palmer, the Ranger third baseman, led off the seventh inning with a liner that jumped rather quickly over the 370-foot sign in left-center field.

Two bad pitches. Two home runs. But only two runs scored, which made the Angels’ three runs through six innings hold up.

The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Salmon flared a single off the handle of his bat to right field, moved to second on J.T. Snow’s walk and scored on DiSarcina’s two-out double to left.

DiSarcina broke his bat on the hit, which actually took a hop near the third-base bag. Palmer had a chance to back-hand the ball but simply whiffed on the play, as the ball rolled slowly into left, giving Salmon plenty of time to score.

After Clark’s homer tied the game in the top of the fourth, the Angels answered in the bottom of the inning when catcher Greg Myers launched a bases-empty home run deep into the right-field bleachers to make it 2-1.

Myers then led off the sixth with a double to right-center, advanced to third on Snow’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Eduardo Perez’s double to left-center.