Smith Finally Fails Angels : Baseball: Closer’s save streak ends at 19 when he gives up three runs in ninth inning, allowing Rangers to win, 9-8.

The end came with a helmet-high fastball to the plate and a line drive to center field. Lee Smith could shrug, smile and laugh about it moments later.

“You didn’t think I could go a whole season without messing one up, did you?” said Smith, whose streak of saves in 19 consecutive appearances was snapped in the Angels’ 9-8 loss to Texas Wednesday night.

“I could have thrown a nasty slider on the black [the edge of the plate] and he could have hit it out of the ballpark,” said Smith, whose streak of 19 scoreless innings this season also ended. “He hit my worst pitch.”

He was Ivan Rodriguez, who stood at the plate with the score tied, 8-8. Will Clark was at third base and Mickey Tettleton at first with one out.

Clark’s two-run double off the center-field fence had knocked in the game-tying runs moments earlier. After retiring Juan Gonzalez on a groundout, Smith walked Tettleton intentionally.

Rodriguez then followed with his game-winning hit, thrusting his arms into the air after the ball landed safely in center. He and Clark were mobbed by celebrating teammates as the announced crowd of 38,053 roared.

The victory put Texas alone in first place in the American League West with the Angels in second, one game behind. It was the Angels’ third consecutive loss and their first three-game losing streak this season.

“Nobody’s won a thing in June,” said Smith, dismissing the significance of the loss. “I don’t think this series should be magnified too much. If it were September it would be different. We’ve got 80-some games left.”

How the Angels lost, how they stumbled in the late innings, seemed to be of more pressing concern to Manager Marcel Lachemann, however.

All the early signs indicated the Angels might have an easy victory.

First, they actually scored a run off Texas starter Kenny Rogers. He went into the game having held the Angels scoreless for 24 consecutive innings, including his perfect game here last July 28.

Second, Tim Salmon continued his torrid hitting at The Ballpark in Arlington, going four for five with a first-inning home run. In his last four games in Arlington, he’s an amazing 16 for 19 with four four-hit games. Plus, Jim Edmonds also homered and doubled, extending his hitting streak to 22 games.

Third, they led, 8-2, in the fifth inning.

In the end, it all added up to a huge belly flop in the late innings.

The Angels’ normally reliable bullpen--Smith, Bob Patterson and Troy Percival in this case--crumbled.

Starter Mark Langston pitched six sound innings, gave up two runs in the seventh then turned the game over to the bullpen with one out in the eighth and the Angels still ahead, 8-4.

Percival got the inning’s second out, but gave way to Patterson after giving up two walks and a hard-hit grounder that second baseman Damion Easley couldn’t control.

Pinch hitter Esteban Beltre, batting a woeful .192, promptly hit a two-run double.

Smith then entered the game, marking the first time this season he has come into a game before the ninth inning. He struck out rookie shortstop Benji Gil to end the threat.

Later, he said a leadoff walk to Otis Nixon set the tone for what happened next in the ninth.

“It can’t all be placed at the feet of the big guy,” Lachemann said. “We had five outs to go with basically our three best bullpen people . . . [In the eighth] we had a couple of walks, we misplayed a ball [Easley’s error], made one bad pitch and suddenly it’s two runs [scored].”

Lachemann never hesitated to bring Smith in for the last out in the eighth.

“The game’s on the line,” Lachemann said. “I had to do it there. I mean if Gil does something big [against Patterson] you’re going to kick yourself.”

As it turned out, Smith fanned Gil on three pitches. He said he had good stuff throughout his stint, including the pitch Clark hit for a double.

“The man hit the best I had,” Smith said.

Said Lachemann: “He’s been great and will continue to be great. Without him we’re not even close to where we are.”