Angels Again at Edge of Abyss

I have the same feeling today that I had on Oct. 13, 1986, the day after Game 5, on the flight back to Boston to watch the last gasps of the American League championship series.

Mathematically, the Angels still had a chance. Actually, two--Game 6 or Game 7. Win one or the other and the day is saved. All would be forgotten. Everyone would be forgiven.

Gary Lucas, come on home.

But this was purely pie in the sky, a pipe dream about to go up in smoke. Deep down, you knew it, I knew it, all of the Angel entourage--except for maybe Gene Mauch--knew it.

The bomb had been dropped.

The tsunami had hit the beach.

The damage had been done, and there would be no cleaning up.

It was over.

It’s hard to look at the Angels today as they tentatively settle into the Foxhole In Arlington for the weekend and not see the grim, just-spotted-a-ghost faces of the ’86 Angels staring back. Donnie Moore, Doug DeCinces, Rob Wilfong, Bobby Grich, Lucas, Mauch--they’re all there, and if the next nine games proceed like the last 33, they are about to be acquitted.

The Collapse of ’95 stands on the ready, perched to eclipse all the dark Angel moments that have gone before it. Moore to Henderson, Sanchez to Cooper, Tommy John on three days’ rest, Lowenstein deep into the Baltimore night in the bottom of the 10th--all will be swept aside if (when?) the Angels complete their cannonball dive from 11 games up on Aug. 10 to no games up on Sept. 20 to no wild card, either, on Oct. 1, over and out and beware of flying shrapnel.

The Angels are approaching All-Time Infamy territory here. A month ago, this young, aggressive team, seemingly impervious to the the black clouds permanently affixed above Anaheim Stadium, was being compared to the best teams in the history of the franchise. Now, the comparisons being made are to the ’78 Red Sox and the ’51 Dodgers and the ’69 Cubs and the ’64 Phillies--the most notorious late-season swoons baseball has known.

Except the ’78 Red Sox took two months to lose all of their 14-game lead, and they were overtaken by a rampaging Yankee team that played better than .700 baseball from July 24 on. Those Red Sox still won 99 games and finished with a winning percentage of .607.

And the ’51 Dodgers, who led by 13 1/2 games on Aug. 12, were caught by a white-hot Giants club that went 39-8 in its final 47 regular-season games. Those Dodgers still won 97 games and hung on to force a three-game playoff with the Giants.

These Angels have been caught by the Seattle Mariners.

The American League West Seattle Mariners.

The finally-nine-games-above-.500 Seattle Mariners.

The never-seen-a-minute-of-a-postseason Seattle Mariners.

Since Aug. 15, the Angels are 8-25. Winning percentage in those 33 games: .242. The skid has included a nine-game losing streak and a still-active seven-game losing streak. Never mind the pennant; will the Angels ever win again? Visions of Moose Stubing, the interim manager who replaced Cookie Rojas late in the 1988 season and failed to win a game, hover on the horizon.

Since Aug. 28, the Angels have been swept in three-game series by the Yankees, Red Sox, Royals and A’s. Their victories this month you can count on one hand--one in Baltimore, two against the Twins in Anaheim, two against the White Sox in Anaheim.

Over the same 33-game span, they have not played either of the two teams chasing them--Seattle and Texas--until tonight.

The Angels have done this to themselves. No one is outkicking them to the finish line. For more than a month, they have been losing, roughly, six of every eight games they play. Just by dog-paddling, the Mariners could have caught them. Play .242 baseball long enough and everybody becomes a contender. Even the A’s, who everyone assumed had seceded from the AL West when we weren’t looking, are back, now a mere five games out of first.

But as of today, the AL West standings have become secondary for the Angels. The real challenge now is finding some way to scrape into the playoffs, which takes us to the Wild Card Derby, where the Yankees are 18-6 in their last 24 and now a single game behind the Angels.

The Angels can lose it all--the divisional title, the playoff berth, everything--and for the first time this season, the Angels sense it. That is the biggest casualty of the collapse. The once-cocky, can’t-happen-to-us Angels now believe it can. Listen to the daily post-defeat comments of Jim Edmonds, J.T. Snow, Gary DiSarcina, all rookies in the Angel Karma League. The seeds of doubt have taken root, and on a young team feeling its way through its first meaningful September, the consequences can be catastrophic.

Right now, the Angels are desperately hoping for a Big Moment. The slump-stopping three-hit shutout. The last-inning game-winning home run. Something, anything, to grasp and maybe rally around.

Tuesday night, Snow’s game-tying two-run home run could have been that moment.

Except the Angels scored no more runs after that and lost in the 10th inning.

Wednesday afternoon, the Angels scored six runs in the ninth inning. That could have served as the Big Moment.

Except the Angels entered that ninth inning trailing, 9-0.

Already, the Angels’ ears are burning as the talk shows back home bat the heinous C-word around the yard like a Shawn Boskie fastball.

C-H-O-K-E.

Unfair?

Well, no doubt, the Angels have left themselves wide open to that one. When a 10 1/2-game lead evaporates in five weeks, it’s tough to counter with, “Gee, what an unlucky bunch of fellows.”

But think back to the scouting reports of April. The 1995 Angels: promising starting lineup, but no depth; some interesting prospects, but not enough experience; a three-deep rotation in dire need of a fourth and fifth starter; a bullpen that could disintegrate if Lee Smith ever starts showing his age.

Opening Night consensus: A .500 ballclub, maybe a few games above.

There the Angels are today. Same destination as expected. Only the route threw everyone for a loop.

Now, they have nine games left to reclaim the stake they threw away. Theoretically, they still have a chance. On paper, they have enough time.

The ’86 Angels flew back to Boston in much the same frame of mind.

There they played two more games and lost them both.

The scores were 10-4 and 8-1.