BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Bavasi Says Lachemann’s Job is Safe

Manager Marcel Lachemann has taken much of the blame for the Angels’ monthlong tailspin, saying he hasn’t done a good job of motivating his players or getting them to relax. In late August he went so far as to say he should be fired if the Angels don’t win their division.

General Manager Bill Bavasi said Lachemann has been too hard on himself.

“We’re all responsible for this, every one of the players, the people in baseball operations and the front office, in the coaches room,” said Bavasi, who joined the team in Texas Friday. “The buck doesn’t stop with the manager. I think he’s done a great job. He just has a very powerful sense of responsibility.”

Bavasi said Lachemann’s job is secure regardless of the Angels’ finish.

“Last year at this time if you told me we’d be tied for first with nine games left I’d say you were full of it,” Bavasi said. “A lot of people in this organization have done a good job to get us here, to give us a chance to win the division, and I won’t overlook that.”

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Bavasi said he hasn’t received many pearls of wisdom from his father, Buzzie, whose first full season as the Brooklyn Dodgers’ general manager was 1951, when the Dodgers led the National League by 13 1/2 games in mid-August but lost the pennant to the New York Giants.

“Everyone says the same thing, you just have to suck it up and handle it,” Bavasi said. “At least in the next 17 years Buzzie won eight pennants and four World Series.”

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The Angels have agreed to allow the start of Wednesday’s game at Seattle to be moved to 4:30 p.m. so it can be televised by ESPN as the first game of a doubleheader with the Colorado Rockies-Dodger game as the nightcap. . . . Tony Phillips opened Friday night’s game with a fly ball out and is now four for 39 (.102) in his first at-bat in games since Aug. 1.