Weary Angels Are Playing Like a Broken Record

At this rate, the Angels will witness the passing of two thought-to-be-insurmountable records next week.

On Wednesday, Sept. 6, Cal Ripken is expected to play in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking Lou Gehrig’s record.

On Friday, Sept. 8, the Angels could very well lose their 13th consecutive game, breaking the franchise’s single-season record.

It is happening again, in case you joined our story some time after 1987 and 1989, the two most recent examples of the Angels heading East in late August with a chance to the win the American League West and never being heard from again.

Except this time, the Angels were supposed to be collapse-proof.

If they struggled, as they annually do, on this trip through the Yankee Stadium-Fenway Park-Camden Yards minefield, they had that ungodly first-place lead--as big as 11 1/2 games in mid-August--to sustain them.

If they were pounded by the Yankees and strafed by the Red Sox, they still had the can’t-stand-up-for-falling-down Texas Rangers unable, or unwilling, to close the gap.

If Brian Anderson and Mike Harkey wilted under the heat of their first pennant drive, they still had Chuck Finley and Mark Langston, the stable veteran hands, to stop the skid before the bandwagon rammed through the guardrail.

The daunting news on this Sunday morning is that Finley and Langston have pitched on this trip, the Angels are 0-5 on this trip and will attempt to end an eight-game losing amid the worst of all conceivable conditions--the wind currents and funky flight patterns of Tim Wakefield’s flutterball. Orlando Palmiero, step right up.

Finley goes again, and if ever the Angels needed a two-hit shutout at Fenway . . . OK, OK, that would have been Game 6 of the 1986 playoffs. But right here, right now, the Angels need a streak-buster, a breath-catcher, because Monday it’s on to Baltimore and three straight days of Cal-mania and “Let’s win three for the Ripper.”

Through August, the Angels could give daily thanks for the blessed creation of the AL West, home of the Rangers (no playoffs in 35 years), the Seattle Mariners (no playoffs in 18 years) and the Oakland A’s (still paying the tab for the gluttony years of the late 1980s).

No more. The Mariners now become giddy at the sight of the morning box scores, learning that a) the Angels have lost again, and b) Ken Griffey Jr. is back in center field. The effect has been the same as strong coffee, and Seattle has climbed back to within 6 1/2 games on the first weekend of September.

Texas has been prodded, too, into more of an ambition than maybe squeezing out the wild card. Before, it was keep the Angels on the horizon, stay above .500 and hold off the Brewers and the Royals for the last playoff spot. Now, the Rangers have to keep pace with the Mariners. Three teams aren’t going to come out of this division--maybe next year; remember how the NFL went nuts lobbing around the wild cards--and it has finally dawned on the Rangers: Better win often enough to be one of the two.

It has made for an actual down-to-the-wire race, a race that seemed inconceivable two weeks ago. Back when Tim Salmon, Jim Edmonds and Garret Anderson were being hailed as the best young outfield in baseball and the ’95 Angels crowned as the Greatest Ballclub In The History Of The Franchise--heady days, those were--Sept. 15 seemed like a good time to schedule the clinching party. In the next 17 games, the Angels went 3-14, bringing them to today, on the brink of their third successive series sweep.

Obviously, the Angels had to cool off sooner or later. No team with a .210 hitter starting at second base and Jorge Fabregas and Greg Myers platooning at catcher was going to play .750 ball all summer. And those old vets Bill Bavasi lined up for the crunch months--Lee Smith and Tony Phillips? They tend to function as old vets. This time of year, the muscles are sorer, the joints ache more and off-days become necessities, not luxuries. Factor in Gary DiSarcina’s broken thumb and Edmonds’ bad back and, sure, August and September are going to be a haul.

But eight losses in a row?

Eleven out of 12?

Fourteen out of 17?

Suddenly, the Angels have Finley, Langston, Anderson and Jim Abbott--and they don’t have enough starting pitching.

Suddenly, the Angels have Edmonds, Salmon, Chili Davis and J.T. Snow--and they’re trading for Mike Aldrete and plugging in Orlando Palmiero because they need more offense.

Welcome back to stretch-drive baseball. It has been awhile. On those rare occasions when the Angels are still contending this late in the season, they never make it easy on themselves. In 1986, they had to sweat out most of September before they could dispatch a vastly inferior Texas team. Now, they’ve gone and done it again, let Texas and Seattle back into the matter, and a three-team race is always more stressful on the leader than a one-team race.

Right now, Gehrig leads Ripken by three games and the Angels lead the Rangers and the Mariners by 6 1/2. It’s tough to say who has the better chance of holding on.