Edmonds, Angels Don’t Get It Done

The Jim Edmonds-for-most-valuable-player express hit a little snag Tuesday afternoon in the Skydome, where the Angel center fielder actually left five runners stranded in a 5-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays before 36,316.

The way Edmonds hit in spring training (.448, seven homers, 21 runs batted in) and in the first five games of the season (.333, three homers, nine RBIs), he seemed poised for a monster year, one that could surpass his all-star season of 1995 and have his tailor taking measurements for a cape.

Edmonds was reduced to a mere mortal Tuesday, his disappointment exemplifying that of the Angels, who were limited to five measly singles by Pat Hentgen, a Blue Jay right-hander they had pummeled last July.

“I’ve never been so frustrated with a straight fastball in my life,” said Edmonds, who grounded into a double play with two runners on in the third inning and flied out with the bases loaded in the fifth. “It was just one of those days.”

Edmonds, who hit a grand slam in the season opener and a three-run homer in last Friday’s victory over the Chicago White Sox, had a chance to alter Tuesday’s game dramatically in those two at-bats.

The Blue Jays, on the strength of Charlie O’Brien’s two-run homer against starter Mark Langston in the second, were leading, 2-0, in the third when Edmonds slapped a 1-0 pitch to first baseman John Olerud, who started an inning-ending double play.

And though Toronto nicked Langston for three more runs in the fourth for the 5-0 lead, Edmonds could have brought the Angels back with one swing in the fifth. But he seemed anxious, reaching for a first pitch that was high and outside and popping it to shallow left.

In the eighth inning, with no one on, Edmonds singled to center, extending his hitting streak to six.

“When guys are on base people expect me to drive them in,” said Edmonds, who hit .290 with 33 homers and 107 RBIs last season and last week signed a four-year, $9-million contract. “That tends to put a little more pressure on me, but I’m learning how to deal with it.”

Langston, meanwhile, is trying to learn how to deal with these Blue Jays. Tuesday’s loss dropped his career record against Toronto to 8-14 with a 5.21 earned-run average. No other American League team has beaten Langston more times.

“I don’t know what it is,” said Langston, who gave up nine hits in seven innings. “I’ve pitched some of the best games of my career here and some of my worst games. They’re definitely a team you have to stay on top of.”

Especially the bottom of the order. Of Toronto’s 11 hits Tuesday, eight came from the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth batters. The Blue Jays were also tough in the clutch, scoring all of their runs after two were out.

O’Brien, a catcher who had 33 home runs in nine years, tagged Langston in the second, and successive hits by Juan Samuel (single), Robert Perez (double), O’Brien (single) and No. 9 batter Alex Gonzalez (double) gave Toronto three runs in the fourth.

“Mark didn’t make a lot of bad pitches, but they jumped all over his mistakes,” Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “That’s good hitting.”

Langston, who pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings in his first start Wednesday, walked one and struck out six. “There were times I needed to come up with a big pitch, and I didn’t do it,” Langston said.

Hentgen did, which was quite a contrast to his last start against the Angels, when he gave up nine runs and 13 hits in a 10-3 loss last July 20. Hentgen retired the Angels in order four times and helped preserve his shutout by starting a 1-6-3 double play in the ninth.

“He mixed his pitches well and hit the outside corner a lot,” Lachemann said. “He kept us off balance the whole game.”

The loss dropped the Angels (3-3) to 3 1/2 games behind the undefeated Texas Rangers in the AL West, but veteran Chili Davis was not concerned--or worried about the Angels’ lack of offense.

“You try not to analyze this game, because just when you think something’s going to happen, boom, it doesn’t happen,” Davis said. “The good thing is tomorrow is another game and you can either redeem yourself, or frustrate yourself again.”