Angels Not Up to Parra, Lose to Twins, 6-4 : Baseball: Former Dodger gets first major league victory by keeping potent offense from erupting.

The Angels have occasionally won this season despite a mediocre performance, but Saturday night at the Metrodome they couldn’t overcome one of their more listless efforts.

“We were outplayed and outmanaged,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said after the Angels’ 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins. “They kind of took it to us and we never got with our game.”

Jose Parra, Minnesota’s rookie starter acquired from the Dodgers in the Kevin Tapani trade, held the Angels to three runs and three hits in six innings, recording his first major league victory.

“We still have to win these kinds of games,” Lachemann said. “We can’t score six or seven runs every game.”

Mike Harkey, pitching for the first time in the Metrodome, didn’t pitch poorly, but couldn’t silence the light-hitting Twins.

“Kind of a brutal way to lose,” said Harkey, whose three-game winning streak was snapped.

“I’ll try to forget about it, but it’s going to be on my mind all night.”

The Twins didn’t overwhelm Harkey, but hurt him softly. He lasted 4 1/3 innings, giving up five runs and eight hits. Most of the Twins’ hits weren’t hammered, but simply landed where they couldn’t be caught.

In the fourth inning, Kirby Puckett doubled sharply down the left-field line, the ball kicking up chalk. He later scored on a fielder’s choice.

In the fifth, the Twins turned an infield hit, a stolen base, two singles and two doubles into four runs, erasing a 2-1 deficit and seizing the lead for good.

“That’s the way they’re going to have to win,” said Harkey, 3-1 in five starts since the Angels claimed him off waivers July 19. “They don’t have many guys who are going to hit the ball out of the ballpark. They’re going to have to fight and scratch to win.

“And that’s what they did.”

The Angels did neither on Saturday.

“I think our problem is sometimes we get behind and we don’t know how to act,” center fielder Jim Edmonds said.

A case in point: After Dan Masteller led off the sixth with a double and Pat Meares bunted, Angel reliever Mike Butcher pounced on the ball and threw wide to third base trying to catch Masteller.

Masteller later scored on a double play, giving the Twins a 6-3 lead.

“We tried to make something happen there instead of just getting the out,” Edmonds said. “Sometimes I think we try too hard to make a big play.”

Said Lachemann: “I never expect a game where we don’t play fundamentally well. If you get beat when somebody makes good pitches and things like that, that’s fine. You’re going to get beat.”

Lachemann didn’t finish the thought, but it was easy to guess what he was thinking. It’s tough to stumble over the simple plays and still win.

Parra kept the Angels off balance in the early innings and they never seemed to recover.

He even stopped Chili Davis’ 16-game hitting streak, retiring him on a groundout, fly-ball out and strikeout.

Parra looked nothing like a pitcher who had two no-decisions and a 12.86 earned-run average in two previous starts for the Twins.

Pat Mahomes held the Angels scoreless in the seventh and eighth and Dave Stevens pitched the ninth for his eighth save, despite giving up a run.

A double play and Masteller’s diving stop of Greg Myers’ smash down the first-base line in the seventh inning certainly didn’t hurt the Twins’ chances.

“We played pretty good defense,” Parra said. “This is a pretty good team.”

A quick check of the standings shows the Twins still have the worst record in the majors, 35-62. Facing the Angels, leading the American League West by 10 games, seemed to inspire the Twins, however.

“It adds a little life with the Angels coming in,” Masteller said. “[And] their lineup--all those guys hitting .300 with 20 [home runs]--where did they get all those guys?”