Davis Takes Blame as Angels Are Beaten

One-by-one, the pieces began to fall into place for the Angels on Sunday. Texas lost. Seattle lost. Oakland lost.

But a promising afternoon turned into merely another long day in the sun as the Angels butchered one opportunity after another in a 4-3, 13-inning loss to Milwaukee at Anaheim Stadium.

Instead of being seven games behind American League West-leading Texas, the Angels are still eight back. Instead of being five behind Seattle in the wild-card race, they are still six back.

The loss ended the Angels’ longest winning streak in more than a month at three and offered another sharp reminder that time is short.

There was a sense that the Angels’ realized they could have, should have seized Sunday’s game and made it theirs.

Instead, they stranded too many runners and couldn’t come up with a key hit against the Brewers’ lackluster bullpen.

Chili Davis hit into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded and the Angels trailing, 3-2, in the seventh.

“I let them off the hook,” Davis said, breaking his vow of silence. “When you’re old as dirt, you know what they’re trying to do to you. I just didn’t do it.”

Davis, who on July 7 said he wouldn’t speak with reporters for the rest of the season, said he was angry at himself for swinging at a bad pitch from reliever Graeme Lloyd.

“If you stick to your game plan and fail, you can be upset,” Davis said. “But if you don’t stick to the plan, it’s worse. We just didn’t come through.”

Actually, Jim Edmonds did.

But true to 1996 form, the Angels took only partial advantage.

Edmonds’ pinch-hit home run to open the ninth tied the score, 3-3, but the Angels went in order as any momentum fizzled.

They stranded six runners in extra innings and seemed in a hurry to go home after putting runners on first and second with one out in the 13th.

Reliever Ramon Garcia, hardly the ace of a bullpen with a 5.34 earned-run average, needed to throw only two pitches to retire Gary DiSarcina and Tim Salmon to end the game and earn his fourth save.

“The big problem this year is not winning the big games,” said Edmonds, who hit his first pinch-hit homer. “We’ve got to win games like that. In my mind, we’ve got to win every game.”

Edmonds refused to blame Davis for leaving the bases loaded in the seventh.

“We can’t expect Chili to drive in every single run,” Edmonds said. “Somebody else has got to step it up.”

That didn’t happen in extra innings.

The Angels had runners on first and second with two out in the 10th, but catcher Don Slaught struck out against reliever Mike Fetters.

They had the same situation in the 11th. But Jorge Fabregas, batting for pitcher Shawn Boskie who pinch-ran for Davis in the 10th, popped out.

They went in order in the 12th, and couldn’t push across the tying run in the 13th.

Milwaukee didn’t exactly hammer starter Mark Langston or four relievers. John Jaha and Kevin Seitzer homered off Langston, making his return from the disabled list after missing two weeks because of a calf injury.

The Brewers turned a walk, a sacrifice, a passed ball and Jesse Levis’ run-scoring infield single into the game-winning run against rookie Mike Holtz (1-1).

“Our pitchers pitched pretty well,” Davis said. “They took us to the 13th. You can’t ask for much more than that.”

Said Langston: “Everything felt good and that’s a good sign. Still, I would have liked to have won the ballgame.”

By the time the Angels and Brewers went to extra innings it was easy to forget that Langston and left-hander Scott Karl had started.

Langston went six innings, giving up seven hits and three runs with three strikeouts and one walk.

“I was really happy with walking only the one guy,” Langston said.

The Angels had their chances against Karl, getting six hits in the first three innings. But their only runs came on Davis’ run-scoring single in the first and Salmon’s bases-empty homer in the third.

Edmonds’ ninth-inning homer seemed to energize the crowd of 25,539 more than it did the Angels, however.

“You just go home. You can’t hang your head, but you’ve got to put your ears back and suck it up,” Davis said.