Langston Comfortable in Angels’ New Rotation : Baseball: Pitching on three days’ rest, he does just fine as team moves closer to AL West title.

The Angels’ magic number is down to 11.

Mark Langston’s magic number is down to one.

The Angels are 16 games over .500 with 16 games to play. One more Angel victory and Langston will be assured of participating in a winning season for the first time during an already storied major league career.

Twelve seasons. One hundred sixty-six victories. Seventeen shutouts. A no-hitter. But never better than 81-81, once with the Montreal Expos in 1989, once with the Angels in 1991.

“Yeah, I’ve never been with a team that won one more than it lost,” Langston said. “This will be a first. But hopefully there will a lot more good things to come out of it.”

Langston, working on three days rest, limited Chicago to six hits and one run in seven innings Tuesday night as the Angels beat the White Sox, 3-1. Manager Marcel Lachemann has decided to go with a four-man rotation until the Angels clinch the division title and Langston, who threw 98 pitches during a 9-3 victory Friday night over the Twins, gave him all he could have asked for.

“That’s exactly what we were hoping for,” Lachemann said. “This thing isn’t going to work if guys are throwing 120 pitches in the sixth inning. Mark pitched very well tonight and the way [Chicago starter Wilson] Alvarez was pitching, he had to.”

Langston used the fastball and the curveball and in the sixth, he used the fast feet and fast throw to get a force play and then the fast spin and fast throw to pick off Chris Snopek.

The White Sox, leading, 1-0, began the inning with a single and a walk and added another single, but Langston ended up having to face only four batters. He pounced on Snopek’s attempted sacrifice and forced Dave Martinez at third. Then left fielder Garret Anderson threw out Barry Lyons at the plate after Ray Durham’s single and Langston picked off Snopek at second to end the inning.

“The defense really picked me up,” Langston said. “Garret made a perfect throw and [shortstop] Dickie [Schofield] is one of the best at sneaking in behind guys.”

Langston isn’t taking much credit, but he’s been getting the job done quite nicely this season. His earned-run average hasn’t been less than 4.00 since May. He’s given up eight or more hits in eight of his last 10 outings. But if the measure of a good starting pitcher is his ability to keep his team in the game, Langston has had a banner year.

He has started 27 games and lost only four times. He’s allowed three or fewer runs in 17 of those starts, pitching into at least the seventh inning 17 times. Six of his seven no-decisions have been decided in extra innings and the team is 20-7 in games he has started.

“With the kind of offense and defense we have, all you have to do is keep it reasonably close,” Langston said. “And with the way these guys have scored runs for me, it feels really good to win a tight game.”

Langston, who has always said he would love to pitch in a four-man rotation, said his arm felt good Friday and even better Tuesday. But Lachemann said he won’t have to pitch on three days rest again unless, “we need him to pitch the final game of the season against Oakland.”

Langston doesn’t shy away from pressure situations, but it’s probably safe to say he hopes it doesn’t come to that.