Red Sox Put Angels Behind the Eight-Ball

When the Angels had an 11-game lead in the American League West three weeks ago, there were projections that if they played .500 baseball for the rest of the season, Seattle and Texas would have to play outrageously good ball in the .700-plus range, to catch the Angels.

What those forecasts didn’t take into account, though, was the possibility of the Angels playing .300 ball or .200 ball.

Or .000 ball, which is what they’ve played the last nine days.

The Angel losing streak reached eight Saturday with a 5-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox before a paid crowd of 32,867 in Fenway Park.

Their lead in the American League West stayed at 6 1/2 games, but at this rate, by the time the Angels return from what has so far been a disastrous (0-5) East Coast trip, they’ll be in the thick of a pennant race. And then what? A wild-card race?

“When this thing started, we lost a couple of games and we’re thinking, ‘Oh, man, we’ll bounce back,’ ” designated hitter Chili Davis said. “Then we lost four or five and we’re thinking, ‘What’s going on?’

“You guys [reporters] are writing about it, you hear about it, and all of a sudden you’re scoreboard watching. Then you start thinking, ‘This is crazy, man.’ We’re worried about losing games, when before all we thought about was winning.”

The Angels have lost 11 of 12 games and 14 of 17, and what’s more astonishing is they have not had a lead in 60 innings, dating back to a 1-0 advantage over Baltimore on Aug. 26.

“This eats at your gut,” third baseman Tony Phillips said. “This is killing me.”

What made Saturday’s loss so hard to digest was that it was the first game during the slide the Angels actually had a legitimate chance of winning. They outhit Boston, 11-10, with three of the hits coming from new center fielder Orlando Palmeiro, and got excellent relief pitching from Mike James, Bob Patterson and Troy Percival.

Boston built a 3-0 lead against starter Mark Langston in the third inning, two of the runs coming on Mo Vaughn’s double, but the Angels came back with two in the fourth on Tim Salmon’s RBI double and Davis’ sacrifice fly.

The Red Sox scored in the fourth on Luis Alicea’s single and fifth on Jose Canseco’s homer, but the Angels pulled to within 5-4 with two in the sixth, on Davis’ RBI single and Rex Hudler’s RBI double.

But the Angels failed to capitalize on four excellent scoring opportunities:

--After scoring twice in the fourth, the Angels had Salmon on third with one out, but Boston starter Zane Smith, who retired the first nine Angels on groundouts, struck out J.T. Snow and got Garret Anderson to ground out.

--Hudler, with runners on first and third, dinked his RBI double over the head of Vaughn at first base, scoring Salmon to make it 5-4 in the sixth.

Anderson, who was on first, advanced to third, but when Alicea, the Red Sox second baseman, retrieved the ball and threw to second, third-base coach Rick Burleson waved Anderson home. Anderson, though, didn’t pick up the sign and stopped at third, while Alicea’s throw hit Hudler in the back and bounced near second base. Greg Myers grounded out to end the inning.

--Damion Easley was thrown out trying to steal second as Phillips struck out in the seventh. Had Phillips hit only a ground ball, Easley would have been safe, and he could have scored on Palmeiro’s single. But the inning ended when Salmon grounded out.

--Pinch-hitter Spike Owen opened the ninth with a single off closer Rick Aguilera and advanced on Myers’ sacrifice bunt. But pinch-hitter Mike Aldrete struck out swinging at a breaking pitch in the dirt, and Phillips flied to center to end the game.

“Had two or three things, make that four or five things, gone our way we could have won,” Davis said. “But we’re not looking for reasons to be optimistic, we’re looking for wins.

“I think we’ll win another game before the year is out.”

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Back to the Pack

The Angels, losers of eight in a row, are making a race of it again:

AL WEST ON AUG. 3

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Team W L Pct. GB Angels 56 33 .629 -- Texas 45 44 .506 11 Seattle 43 45 .489 12 1/2 Oakland 42 49 .462 15

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AL WEST TODAY

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Team W L Pct. GB Angels 67 52 .563 -- Seattle 60 58 .508 6 1/2 Texas 60 58 .508 6 1/2 Oakland 58 62 .483 9 1/2

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