Angels Still Have Magic Number for Minnesota : Baseball: Tim Salmon homers in the seventh for a 6-5 victory, his team’s second against the Twins in this series.

You say you’ve lost 17 of 22, given up 14 homers in the past four games, fallen behind 28 consecutive times and your once-insurmountable lead in the AL West is looking more and more surmountable every day. Is that what’s bothering you, bub?

Well, Minnesota has the cure for what ails you. Just take a handful of Twins, go to bed and rest easy. You’ll wake up relaxed, refreshed and in control again.

The Twins, a mere 40 games behind the Cleveland Indians, are focusing on fishing trips and Caribbean cruises, so they’re glad to help any team in dire need of a few victories.

The Angels reduced their magic number to 14 Saturday night when Tim Salmon’s two-run homer in the seventh inning lifted them to a 6-5 victory over Minnesota in front of an announced crowd of 27,141 in Anaheim Stadium.

“I’ve never been around a magic number before,” Salmon said. “Fourteen? That seems like a lot.”

If the Angels’ starting pitching continues to waver, it will continue to loom large. Saturday, they managed to win when one of their best starters gave up 10 hits and a career-high three wild pitches. Chuck Finley, who has been pounded for 26 hits and 19 runs in his last three starts, is obviously feeling the pressure of the Angels erratic drive toward the division title.

“Any veteran player can feel like they’re the one who has to step up when things are going bad,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “But that implies that you haven’t been at the maximum level all along. You can try to step it up, but that’s not possible when you’ve already been giving it your best effort.

And in the course of trying to do too much, you end up not even doing what you are capable of. Tonight, he just kind of got out of the groove and got some balls up.”

Finley sailed through the first four innings. The Angels, meanwhile, played Minnesota starter Mike Trombley like a trombone.

In the first inning, Jim Edmonds, mired in a seven-for-58 slump, followed a Damion Easley walk with a single to right and Chili Davis, hitless in 10 previous at-bats, drove them home with a double that short-hopped the fence in center. Tony Phillips led off the third with his second homer in as many nights and the Angels were ahead, 3-0.

But the first three Minnesota batters in the fifth singled to center for one run and then the Twins tied the game when the fourth, Chuck Knoblauch, drove in two runs with a single to left. Knoblauch was caught stealing on a pitchout and was ejected when he argued about the call.

Finley was simply dejected.

He yielded consecutive singles to Scott Leius and Matt Walbeck leading off the sixth. Leius scored on Finley’s second wild pitch and the Angels trailed for the 29th consecutive game. But the Twins’ charity is bountiful these days and the Angels tied the game in the bottom of the inning with an unearned run after Pat Meares mishandled Salmon’s grounder. Two outs and a walk to Jorge Fabregas later, Spike Owen lined a pinch-hit single to center to tie the score again. It was Owen’s 14th run batted in and 13th hit in 28 trips to the plate as a pinch hitter this season.

Jeff Reboulet gave Minnesota th lead with homer off the left-field foul pole in the seventh. That was it for Finley, but not the Angels. Edmonds led off the bottom of the inning with his third hit of the night and Salmon extended his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games with a rocket into the seats in deep left.

Rich Monteleone, who retired the Twins in order after Reboulet’s homer in the seventh, earned his first victory since 1994 when he was with San Francisco and Lee Smith got his 33rd save. Smith gave up a one-out single to Dan Masteller, but pinch-runner Rich Becker was thrown out attempting to steal on another pitchout and pinch-hitter Matt Merullo ended the game with a groundout.