Angels’ Lead Is All Gone : Baseball: Seattle moves into first-place tie after Oakland completes a sweep, 9-6.

The 1995 Angels are being mentioned in the same vein as the 1978 Boston Red Sox, 1969 Chicago Cubs, 1964 Philadelphia Phillies and 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers, and if you are aware of baseball history, you know that’s no compliment.

This is baseball’s Division of Disrepute, consisting of teams that have suffered the game’s most notorious late-season collapses. The Angels are perilously close to membership.

On Wednesday, they lost to the Oakland Athletics, 9-6, before a paid Oakland Coliseum crowd of 11,854, making the game semi-interesting with a six-run, ninth inning before losing for the seventh consecutive time.

The nose-diving Angels have lost 25 of 33 games and, with Seattle defeating Texas on Wednesday night, their lead in American League West has evaporated completely. The Angels’ lead was 11 games on Aug. 9, and now they are tied for first with the Mariners.

Oakland’s three-game sweep of the Angels also moved the last-place A’s to within five games of the Angels. The teams close the season with a four-game series in Anaheim.

So, it’s still possible that the Angels, who had the league’s worst record in 1994, could go from worst to first to worst--all in one season.

“I don’t think we’re going out expecting to win like we were earlier this year,” first baseman J.T. Snow said. “I don’t think one play or one game is going to give us the feeling that, ‘OK, we can go out and win again.’ Winning is an attitude you have to have when you step on the field.”

If the Angels can’t regain that feeling, and if they continue their free fall and miss the playoffs, it wouldn’t be the worst collapse in baseball history. But it would rank right up there with:

--The 1964 Phillies, who led St. Louis by 6 1/2 games with 12 to play but lost the pennant when then-manager Gene Mauch employed a two-man rotation of Jim Bunning and Chris Short.

--The 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers, who led the New York Giants by 13 1/2 games in mid-August but lost the pennant on Bobby Thomson’s three-run home run in the final game of a three-game National League playoff series.

--The 1978 Red Sox, who led the Yankees by 8 1/2 games Aug. 27 but eventually lost to them in a one-game playoff.

--The 1969 Chicago Cubs, who led the New York Mets by 9 1/2 games on Aug. 16 but went belly up, finishing eight games behind the Mets.

“Anything I want to say right now shouldn’t be said, because I’m trying to think positive,” designated hitter Chili Davis said. “If I could figure out a way to get some wins without sacrificing my soul, I’d do it.”

Getting a lead would be a good start. In the first inning Wednesday, Angel starter Shawn Boskie gave up a three-run home run to Mark McGwire, a 465-foot blast that caromed off the last row of the left-field bleachers. It was the 15th time in the last 29 games that the Angels have given up a first-inning homer.

A five-run sixth gave the A’s an 8-0 lead.

The Angels have gone 57 consecutive innings without a lead, dating from a Sept. 13 game against the Chicago White Sox in Anaheim. The Angels went 73 consecutive innings without a lead during their nine-game losing streak in late August and early September.

A solo home run by Garret Anderson and three-run homer by Tim Salmon gave the Angels hope in the ninth, but the deficit was too large.

“We’ve lost that intimidation, that edge, the feeling that we’re going to go out and hammer teams,” said shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who hopes to return to the lineup this weekend against Texas.

“How do we get that feeling back? By doing the little things that improve confidence. We can’t look at the game as a whole. We have to take it pitch by pitch, inning by inning, and everyone has to concentrate on doing his job.”

Manager Marcel Lachemann said the Angels’ problems are more mental than physical. He takes the blame for that.

“It’s my job to get them motivated,” he said. “I’ve tried different things, but obviously they haven’t worked. Maybe I need to talk to more guys individually, get them more relaxed.”

That is easier said than done.

“It’s like telling yourself to relax when you’re tense,” said Boskie, who has a 2-10 career record and a 7.48 earned-run average in September. “You can’t do it.”