Finley, Smith Suffer from Poor Timing : Baseball: All-star pitchers’ weak performances lead to Angels’ 9-7 loss to Brewers.

Memo from American League All-Star Manager Buck Showalter to Angel pitchers Chuck Finley and Lee Smith:

Never mind.

Two days before Tuesday’s battle of baseball’s best in Arlington, Tex., the Angel all-star pitchers weren’t exactly showcasing their talents during a 9-7 loss to Milwaukee in front of a paid crowd of 19,186 in Anaheim Stadium.

Starter Chuck Finley, who had not allowed more than four earned runs in any of his previous 14 starts, gave up eight Sunday and walked a season-high five.

And it only took three innings to accomplish those “feats.”

The Angel offense, which has produced 18 come-from-behind victories this season, did not wilt in the heat, however, and rallied to trim the deficit to one run going into the ninth. But Smith, who is second in the league with 20 saves, came in and gave up a run on three walks and a double.

“Me and Chuck are going to have to sneak in now,” Smith said. “Maybe we can get some Cleveland Indians’ patches for our sleeves and they’ll let us in.”

The way things have been going for the Angels, who had won five of their last seven, Sunday’s game looked like an easy victory.

Finley, with the league’s fourth-best earned-run average (2.92) coming off a shutout, was facing Brian Givens, a rookie with an ERA of 8.40 whose last decision was a loss when his team scored 13 runs.

But Milwaukee sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning. The first two walked, three of the next four singled, then Matt Mieske hit his first career grand slam. The Brewers led, 6-0, before Finley had recorded the second out.

“I went 0-2 to the first batter and lost him and then I just kind of fell into a funk,” Finley said. “I gave up the two ground-ball hits and then I was just trying to get ahead of Mieske and left one out over the plate.

“Still, I felt like if I could hold them at six, the way we’ve been scoring runs, that wasn’t going to be enough to beat us.”

Sure enough, the Angels scored a run in the first and another in the second to narrow the gap, but Finley had control problems in the third. With two outs, he yielded a single and two walks and the Brewers scored twice more on a double by Jeff Cirillo.

“You can’t put your team in that deep of a hole and expect them to crawl out,” Finley said. “To their credit, they kept battling but that’s a little too much to expect.

“It’s a long season and you’re going to have games like this. And I’ve got enough years behind me to know that and deal with it. But the timing on this one wasn’t too good. They’re probably not even going to let me drop off my bags in Arlington now.”

Center fielder Jim Edmonds is also Texas-bound today and he’ll probably be welcomed with open arms. He has had a hit in 28 of his last 32 games and Sunday he brought his team back within striking distance with his 13th homer of the year, a three-run shot to center off Bill Wegman in the sixth inning.

Rex Hudler, getting a start at designated hitter in place of the injured Chili Davis, followed with a homer to left and the Angels were poised for another rally.

“We’ve been doing that all year,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “It’s really no surprise, nothing unusual.”

Troy Percival retired the Brewers in order in the seventh and eighth innings and then Lachemann brought in closer Smith--who has made 24 appearances this season, 22 of them in save situations--to hold the Brewers at bay and give the Angels a chance to tie or win it in the ninth.

Smith struck out Cirillo leading off the inning then walked Pat Lisatch. Kevin Seitzer followed with a run-scoring double and then Smith went strikeout-walk-walk-strikeout to stagger out of the inning with the bases loaded.

“I needed to work off a little rust,” he said. “I hung a slider to Seitzer and was lucky he didn’t put it in the seats. It wasn’t my best performance, but I’m still going [to the All-Star game].

“They’re going to have to let the old man run with the young boys at least this one more time.”