Rough Season Taking Its Toll on Edmonds : Baseball: Angel outfielder shows the emotional and physical signs of playing for an up-and-down team.

Somebody asked Jim Edmonds how he felt after a sun-splashed Sunday afternoon turned into a sour evening.

“Fine,” Edmonds replied, showered and changed into a T-shirt and shorts after the Angels punted a sure victory at Anaheim Stadium. “Tired, but hanging in there.”

Edmonds seemed to be putting up a brave front. There was considerable evidence that all was not well.

He wore matching raspberries above both knees, signs of the physical pounding he’s taken over the course of a season now reaching a breaking point.

Will the Angels regain their physical and emotional strength and eventually clinch their first division championship since 1986, a title that seemed almost a slam dunk last month?

Or will they falter in the stretch, bungling away a trip to the playoffs with such mistake-filled debacles as Sunday’s 9-8, 10-inning loss to Minnesota?

Even Edmonds seemed unsure of what to expect next. All that concerned him was putting Sunday behind him. It didn’t figure to be an easy task.

Down, 2-0, up, 7-2, tied, 7-7, up, 8-7, tied, 8-8, and finally down, 9-8. This was a difficult loss to stomach. Just as Edmonds and the Angels seemed to be coming out of their respective funks, Sunday hit like a kick in the head.

“We just flat-out played a bad game today,” Edmonds said.

Even pleasing events were tempered by the end result and the fact that Seattle won and moved to within five games of the Angels in the American League West.

Edmonds knocked in a run with a third-inning single, his first run batted in since Aug. 25. He also hit a three-run homer in the fourth, his first homer since Aug. 25. Four RBIs pushed his team-leading total to 101.

Topping 100 RBIs for the first time in his pro career “means a lot,” said Edmonds, five for 10 with a double and a home run in the past two games but 12 for 68 (.176) in the past 17.

“It seemed like I was stuck on 97 for two months,” he said. “It [passing the 100-RBI barrier] seems like a common thing, but I know it’s a little astronomical for me. To put up numbers like that lets people know what kind of player I am.”

If Edmonds, an All-Star center fielder, could have ended his day right there in the fourth inning, all would have been well in his world. His three-run homer off Minnesota starter Oscar Munoz highlighted a six-run inning that gave the Angels what seemed like a safe lead on the way to a three-game sweep of the Twins.

But there was so much more to Sunday’s baseball follies and that was the part that cost the Angels a game they probably should have sewn up in the fourth inning.

“It’s a total team effort whether you win or lose,” Edmonds said. “It seemed like a total team effort in the loss today.”

Edmonds’ contribution to the tally sheet marked “miscues” was a dreadfully-placed bunt in the midst of a promising ninth-inning rally.

With Spike Owen on second base and Rex Hudler on first with no outs and the score tied, 8-8, Edmonds was called upon to bunt, something he’s rarely been asked to do this season.

He refused to lean on that as an excuse, accepting blame for dropping a bunt into the lap of reliever Dave Stevens, who threw out Owen at third.

“It was almost like I wanted to do too much,” Edmonds said of his poor execution. “I wanted to get the bunt down too badly. It was just a bad at-bat.”

Stevens then got Chili Davis to ground out and struck out Tim Salmon. Minnesota scored in the 10th and the Angels did not.

“The first two games we played well [against the Twins],” Edmonds said. “These games are going to happen. . . . When it happens and you lose it kind of looks even worse.”