Angels Beat White Sox but Lose Easley to Injury : Baseball: Second baseman’s knee mishap dampens 4-1 victory, five-hitter by Boskie.

The Angels are still standing, as Monday night’s 4-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox will attest, but the same can’t be said for second baseman Damion Easley, whose fifth-inning knee injury put a damper on the Angels’ most impressive victory in weeks.

Shawn Boskie, in only his third start since being sidelined for two months because of elbow tendinitis, went the distance on a five-hitter before a paid 17,934 in Anaheim Stadium. It was the Angels’ first complete game since Aug. 7 and the right-hander’s third complete game of his career.

The Angels, who used nine pitchers in Sunday’s 9-8 loss to the Minnesota Twins, scored four runs in the first inning and held on, marking the first time since Aug. 9, a span of 30 games, that they have not trailed at some point of a game.

Combined with Seattle’s loss to Minnesota Monday night, the Angels pushed their lead in the American League West to six games.

But the Angels, who lost shortstop Gary DiSarcina to a thumb injury Aug. 3, were left pondering the possibility of finishing the season--and starting the postseason--without the double-play combination that began the season.

Easley, who spent about a month filling in for the injured DiSarcina at shortstop before moving back to second last week, was injured after making a spectacular diving grab of Tim Raines’ grounder to the hole.

He scrambled to his knees and threw Raines out to end the fifth inning, but then rolled onto his stomach and began kicking the ground with his right foot, in obvious pain.

Easley twisted his left knee while making the throw and had to be carried off the field on a stretcher. Dr. Craig Milhouse’s preliminary diagnosis was a sprained knee, and Easley was transported to Anaheim Memorial Hospital for X- rays, the results of which were not available late Monday.

Easley will be re-examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum today, but it was not known Monday night how long Easley will be out.

“It’s serious--he definitely won’t play for several days,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “We’re going to miss him, but we’ll get it done. Rex [Hudler] will play, and we have Spike [Owen] and Rene [Gonzales]. We’ll just have to make it work.”

This was another setback in an injury-filled season for the 25-year-old infielder, who missed time because of a sprained right wrist, bruised left wrist, migraine headaches and rotator cuff tendinitis.

“I hope he’s not out for long because without him we wouldn’t have got to this point,” said third baseman Tony Phillips, who had two hits and scored a run Monday.

“Look at what he’s done--he’s played second base, shortstop. People say he hasn’t done much offensively [Easley is batting .216] but we wouldn’t be where we are without him.”

The same could be said for Boskie, who was a long shot to make the team during spring training, but has been one of the team’s most consistent pitchers.

Boskie (7-4) struggled a bit early Monday, walking two in the first inning, but no White Sox runner advanced past second base until Robin Ventura’s bases-empty homer in the ninth. He finished with three walks and three strikeouts and gave a beleaguered Angel bullpen the night off--both Troy Percival and Lee Smith had pitched in all three games of the weekend series against the Twins.

“We use nine pitchers one day and one the next; to get an effort like that is outstanding,” Lachemann said. “That was a big performance for us.”

The Angels continued their reunion with a long-lost friend--the clutch two-out hit--during a four-run first inning off White Sox starter Mike Sirotka, who was pitching for Louisiana State University two seasons ago.

They loaded the bases on Phillips’ single, Easley’s sacrifice bunt attempt that he beat out for a single and Jim Edmonds’ infield single. They went ahead, 1-0, on Chili Davis’ sacrifice fly, and Tim Salmon flied to right for the second out.

But J.T. Snow followed with a drive to right-center that landed just beyond the reach of diving right fielder Lyle Mouton for a two-run double, and Garret Anderson followed with an RBI single to right, giving the Angels a 4-0 lead.