A Flaw in Smith’s Perfection : Baseball: After 19 consecutive saves, he blows one and so do the Angels, 9-8, to the Rangers. Edmonds extends streak to 22 games.

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.

“You didn’t think I could go a whole season without messing one up, did you?” Smith said after his streak of earning a save in a major league-record 19 consecutive appearances was ended in the Angels’ 9-8 loss to Texas on Wednesday night.

“I could have thrown a nasty slider on the black [edge of the plate], and he could have hit it out of the ballpark,” said Smith, whose streak of 19 scoreless innings 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. There was 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 in center field. 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 damn 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 got damn near 80 games left.”

How the Angels lost, in the late innings, seemed to be of more concern to Manager Marcel Lachemann. All the early signs indicated an easy victory.

First, they scored off Texas starter Kenny Rogers. He began the game having held the Angels scoreless for 24 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, his is 16 for 19. Plus, Jim Edmonds also homered and doubled, extending his hitting streak to 22 games.

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

The Angels’ 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 ahead, 8-4.

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

Pinch-hitter Esteban Beltre, batting .192, doubled in two runs.

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

Smith said a leadoff walk to Otis Nixon set the tone for what happened 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 in Smith in the eighth.

“The game’s on the line,” Lachemann said. “I had to do it there.”