Angels Hit Upon Winning Solution : Baseball: After being no-hit by McDowell for seven innings, team wins sixth in a row, 3-1, against Yankees.

It doesn’t matter who or what you throw in front of the Angels these days, they simply toss everything aside as if it were last week’s TV Guide.

Wednesday night, the Yankees sent their A team out to face the Angels: Luis Polonia, Wade Boggs, Paul O’Neill and Don Mattingly, who didn’t play in Tuesday night’s loss, were in the starting lineup.

So was Yankee pitcher Jack McDowell, a major upgrade from Mariano Rivera, who made his major league debut against the Angels on Tuesday.

But not even that was enough to stop the Angels, who used clutch hits by Greg Myers, Spike Owen and Gary DiSarcina in the eighth inning to pull out a 3-1 victory over the Yankees before 15,497 at Anaheim Stadium and extend their winning streak to six.

The first-place Angels improved to 17-9, equaling their best start after 26 games since 1985, and they enter tonight’s series finale against the Yankees having won six of eight series this season.

McDowell, the 1993 Cy Young Award winner acquired in a trade with the Chicago White Sox last December, took a no-hitter into the eighth inning Wednesday but lost that, the shutout and the game in a matter of minutes.

The right-hander had gone virtually untouched for seven innings until Chili Davis opened the eighth with a grounder between first and second. First baseman Don Mattingly dove and missed, and second baseman Pat Kelly dove and smothered the ball.

Kelly, from his knees, threw a one-hopper to McDowell covering first and the pitcher dug out the ball, but Davis slid in before the throw and was ruled safe.

Myers then lined a double that hit the “6” on the 386-mark at the top of the left-center field wall, scoring Davis to tie the game, 1-1.

Spike Owen, who started at third in place of Eduardo Perez, followed with a liner to right-center that scored Myers with the go-ahead run, and Owen advanced to third when center fielder Bernie Williams’ throw got past the cut- off man and rolled into the Angel dugout.

McDowell struck out Damion Easley, but DiSarcina lined an RBI single to center for an insurance run and a 3-1 lead.

Lee Smith, making his 200th American League appearance, replaced reliever Bob Patterson to start the ninth and allowed a one-out double to Mike Stanley. But Smith struck out Williams and got pinch-hitter Danny Tartabull on a tapper back to the mound for his league-leading 11th save.

The Yankees scored their only run in the third when Polonia doubled to left off starter Shawn Boskie and scored on Boggs’ single to right.

Boskie was overshadowed by McDowell’s bid for a no-hitter--McDowell appeared to win the crowd over in the seventh when his inning-ending strikeout of Tim Salmon elicited a roar.

But Boskie was outstanding, going 7 1/3 innings, allowing one run on six hits, striking out five and walking one before being replaced by Patterson, who retired the only two batters he faced in the eighth.

The Angels talked before the game of not letting their five-game win streak or the fact they were in first place, three games ahead of Oakland and Texas, go to their heads.

McDowell certainly brought them down to earth for seven innings.

What miniscule scoring opportunities the Angels had early went down in flames on the basepaths. Jim Edmonds walked with one out in the first inning but was thrown out by Yankee catcher Stanley trying to steal second. Salmon then struck out to end the inning.

Owen walked to lead off the sixth and Easley squared to bunt on several pitches. But when McDowell fell behind on the count, Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann called for what was either a stolen base or hit-and-run play.

But the only thing stolen appeared to be Lachemann’s signs. Either that, or the Yankees guessed right. McDowell pitched out, and Owen, knowing he had no chance to beat Stanley’s throw to second, stopped about halfway there.

Owen was eventually thrown out in a rundown and, after Easley walked, Gary DiSarcina hit into an inning-ending, 4-6-3 double play.