ANGEL NOTEBOOK : Panic Hasn’t Set In Yet, but They Feel the Heat

It could have been one of those defining moments in a championship season.

Chili Davis, having sent a rocket line drive over the fence in straightaway center during the seventh inning to pull the Angels within two runs of Kansas City, came to the plate in the eighth with a chance to change the Angels’ failing fortunes.

Three pitches later, Davis was heading back to the dugout. It was the 1,377th time he has struck out in his career and he’s certain it won’t go down in infamy. The Angels will win the division title during the next couple of weeks and he’ll never think of it again.

But it would have been nice to win this one, to end a three-game slide that became four with the Royals’ 10-8 victory Sunday, to gain a game in the standings over Seattle, to celebrate for an evening, to push back the creeping self doubts, to shut up the critics for just one day.

“All I read is how we’re letting this slip away,” Davis said, “but we’re still in first place. This is no time to get frustrated. This is time to go out and play hardball.”

There is no apparent panic in the Angel clubhouse, but there is a growing sense of urgency. Davis, who strained his right hamstring Tuesday night, was back in the lineup Saturday night, clearly less than 100% healthy.

“If this were July, I could sit out for a month and let it heal,” he said, “but there’s no way I’m going to be out of the lineup now.”

Davis is looking forward to the next 12 games, the last 12 games.

“Soon, we’re going to be playing these guys who are chasing us,” he said. “And hopefully we’ll be able to clinch it in their faces.”

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Tony Phillips said Manager Marcel Lachemann held him out of Sunday’s starting lineup so the third baseman could “clear his head,” after striking out seven times in the previous two games. However, all the move did was create more confusion.

“The only way I can get out of this funk is to keep swinging the bat,” Phillips said. “I’ve never seen anyone take a day off and come back hitting better. I have to keep busting my ass and taking my lumps.

“No one can motivate me like myself, and getting booed is motivation enough. But if I was watching me, I’d boo too, because I feel the same way about myself.”

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Kansas City bench coach Gene Mauch can empathize with the Angels. His 1964 Philadelphia Phillies blew a 6 1/2-game lead with 12 games remaining and lost the NL pennant to St. Louis.

“Everyone at some point in a season has one real terrible losing streak, but it all depends on when it happens,” said Mauch, the Angels’ manager in 1986 when the team came within one out of a World Series berth but lost to Boston in the American League championship series.

“The media labels them. If it happens early in the season you get off to a bad start. If it happens in middle of season you’ve fallen into a slump. If it happens at the end of the season, then it’s because you’re feeling the pressure. But that’s all bull.”

Times staff writer Mike DiGiovanna contributed to this story.