O’Neill’s Bat Keeps Angels on Low Road : Baseball: Outfielder has three homers, eight RBIs in Yankees’ 11-6 victory.

The Angels snapped out of their prolonged batting slump Thursday night, but not with the grandeur that New York Yankee right fielder Paul O’Neill broke out of his.

O’Neill awoke from an 0-for-16 spell with three home runs in his first three at-bats and eight runs batted in to lead the Yankees to an 11-6 victory over the Angels in front of an announced crowd of 25,633 in Yankee Stadium.

The victory gave the Yankees a three-game series sweep of the Angels, who suffered their sixth consecutive loss, their ninth loss in the last 10 games and now lead the American League West by 7 1/2 games over Texas and Seattle.

O’Neill had two chances to become the second Yankee--Lou Gehrig was the other--and 13th major leaguer to hit four homers in a game. But with the crowd on its feet, anticipating a historic moment, all the 6-foot-4 left-hander could manage was an RBI single in the sixth.

O’Neill then struck out against reliever Troy Percival in the eighth and had to settle for becoming the 14th Yankee to hit three home runs in a game.

“I don’t know what to say, I’ve never done this before,” shrugged O’Neill, whose homers traveled a combined 1,154 feet. “I’ve been struggling a bit, so every time up there I just try to hit the ball hard somewhere. It just happened tonight. I don’t know why. If I did, I’d do it more often.”

Two of O’Neill’s homers came against starter Brian Anderson, a three-run shot to right-center in the first inning and a three-run shot to right in the second, which helped stake the Yankees to a 7-0 lead and had some Angels longing for the good ol’ days--like July.

“We’ve got to come out and jump on someone at the beginning of the game like we used to,” Angel first baseman J.T. Snow said. “We need to put up two or three runs in the top of the first on this road trip.”

The Angels, who haven’t had a lead in a game since Saturday--and they eventually lost that one to Baltimore--continued their pattern of falling behind early, except this time they mounted something of a comeback.

They had 14 hits--the first time they’ve reached double figures in hits in a week--and scored three runs in the sixth, their biggest inning in a week. They even had the tying run . . . in the on-deck circle.

Hey, it’s progress.

“It’s a very small victory in the scheme of things, but it’s something to build on,” said right fielder Tim Salmon, who had three hits. “When we were down by seven it would have been easy to pack it in and get out of here, but we battled, got some two-out hits, and scored off their closer [John Wetteland] in the ninth.”

Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann knew the offense would eventually come around; pitching is now his biggest concern. Anderson, who has lost five consecutive decisions and given up 34 runs and 46 hits in his last five starts, couldn’t even finish the second inning. His spot in the rotation is looking more tenuous with every start.

Mike Harkey came on and gave up two runs in 3 2/3 innings, but reliever Bob Patterson was hammered for two runs on three hits in one-third of an inning and Mike Butcher walked in two runs for the second time in three games.

Angel opponents have reached double figures in hits in the past six games, and the Yankees scored first-inning runs in all three games this week.

“One of the things you have to do for the club is give them the expectation they’re going to win from the start of the game, and that starts with pitching,” Lachemann said. “You can’t give up four or five in the first inning and expect to win games. I thought we battled and played hard, but we just pitched very poorly.”

Anderson (6-7) said he didn’t feel any extra pressure to snap the Angel losing streak.

“I enjoy those situations,” the left-hander said. “When things are going bad, I want to be the one who gets the ball and stops it. After Wednesday’s game I was thinking, this is what I live for. I wanted to give us something positive to work with, not make it worse.”

The Angels, who battered the struggling Yankees while sweeping a three-game series in May and tore up opposing pitching for about a month after the All-Star break, are now being humbled, but Lachemann still believes that feeling won’t last much longer.

“Someone is going to pay for this sooner or later,” he said. “It’s like with the Yankees earlier in the season. They were struggling and you knew someone was going to pay for it eventually. That’s going to happen with us.”

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On the Slide

A look at how Brian Anderson has pitched in his last six starts and his statistics before that. Coincidentally, shortstop Gary DiSarcina was injured on Aug. 3, just before the first of Anderson’s bad performances:

ANDERSON THROUGH AUG. 5

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IP H R ER BB SO W-L ERA 63 53 27 27 19 19 6-2 3.86

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ANDERSON’S LAST SIX STARTS

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Date, Opp. IP H R ER BB SO Dec. Aug. 6, vs. Tex. 7 1/3 8 5 4 1 3 L Aug. 11, at Min. 3 2/3 7 5 5 2 5 ND Aug. 16, at Chi. 4 9 7 7 1 4 L Aug. 21, vs. Bos. 6 1/3 6 6 6 3 4 L Aug. 26, vs. Bal. 6 1/3 10 4 4 3 2 L Aug. 31, at NY 1 2/3 6 7 7 1 1 L

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ANDERSON’S OVERALL RECORD

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IP H R ER BB SO W-L ERA 92 1/3 99 61 60 30 38 6-7 5.85

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