Angels Get Lost in All Hoopla : Baseball: AL West lead, however, stays at 5 1/2 games despite second lethargic setback, 4-2, in as many nights at Baltimore.

It didn’t have the thunder-bolt effect of Hank Aaron’s 715th home run, the daily drama of Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, the spontaneity of a Sandy Koufax no-hitter.

Heck, you could see this one coming 2,131 games away.

But that didn’t make it any easier to prepare for or cope with, as the Angels discovered in a 4-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday night.

While a sellout crowd of 46,272 in Camden Yards showered Cal Ripken Jr. with waves of wild applause as the Oriole shortstop broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games record, the Angels tried to concentrate on winning an important game in a tightening American League West race.

It wasn’t easy, what with Secret Service agents casing the Angel clubhouse and dugout before the game, search dogs sniffing around their lockers--”They found the candy in the snack room,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said--and several hundred media members around the batting cage.

And then, when the game became official in the middle of the fifth inning, the Angels pretty much lost it with the rest of this hero-worshiping crowd, basking in the amazing 22-minute 15-second outpouring of affection for Ripken.

Ripken’s victory lap around the field during the lengthy standing ovation included warm embraces from Angel players and coaches in front of their dugout, while Angels on the field awaiting the bottom of the fifth clapped their hands into their mitts in salute of Ripken.

“It was a very tough game, very emotional, one that was hard to play in,” Angel second baseman Rex Hudler said. “I’ve never been in a World Series game, but that’s what it felt like, like a one-game playoff.

“To be able to play in this game, I’ll never forget it, my kids will never forget it, and my grandkids will never forget it.”

How could he? Hudler caught a soft line drive off the bat of Ripken with two out and the bases loaded in the fifth inning and sprinted right into the clubhouse, never taking the special-edition ball out of his glove.

“I’m very bummed we lost the game but thankful I caught that ball,” said Hudler, a former teammate of Ripken’s who was actually drafted ahead of the Oriole star in 1978. “The crowd was booing, but I’m sorry, that’s my souvenir for a lifetime.”

It will have a nice companion piece in Hudler’s trophy case. After the game, Hudler was stunned to receive a gift delivered by teammate Gary DiSarcina: A bat bearing a short note to Hudler and signed by Ripken.

“I am staggered, humbled and visibly shaken ,” Hudler said. “He told me two years ago he was going to give me a bat, and I thought he was blowing me off. Then he gives me one on the night he breaks Lou Gehrig’s record? That’s the kind of class he has. It’s such an honor, man. I am not worthy.”

The Angels were hoping the playoff-type atmosphere in Baltimore would be good training for a possible postseason appearance. But after snapping their nine-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory Monday, they were shut out Tuesday and hardly challenged Baltimore on Wednesday, the days Ripken tied and broke the record.

They managed only six hits Wednesday night, five off starter and winner Mike Mussina (16-8). Baltimore hit four bases-empty home runs, including one by Ripken in the fourth inning, giving them 10 solo homers against the Angels in two days.

“We were hoping the energy and excitement here would be enough to turn it around, but that wasn’t the case,” Angel right fielder Tim Salmon said, disappointed in the loss but happy he witnessed a historic event.

“I had the best seat in the house,” he said. “To see the flicker of flashbulbs, feel the wave of energy . . . it gives you goose bumps you wouldn’t believe. It’s probably the biggest experience I’ve had in baseball.”

Angel Notes

They went 1-8 on this East Coast trip, but the Angels remarkably lost only two games on their AL West lead, which shrunk from 7 1/2 games to 5 1/2 games. . . . With the ineffectiveness of left-hander Brian Anderson (0-6, 10.86 earned-run average in last seven starts) and four scheduled off-days in September, Manager Marcel Lachemann will use a four-man rotation of Chuck Finley, Mark Langston, Jim Abbott and Shawn Boskie for the rest of the season.