Angels Fall Short of Everything but First Place in West

When the Angels awake in St. Petersburg, Fla., this morning, they may want to peek in their morning paper at the American League West standings, just to remind and reassure themselves they are still in first place, a game ahead of the Texas Rangers.

Because it certainly doesn’t seem like it. Not after they were stuffed through the weekend grinder that was Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles completed a three-game sweep of the Angels with a 12-7 victory Sunday before a crowd of 48,013.

The Angels made their largest comeback of the season, erasing a 7-1 Oriole lead with a spirited charge that included Tim Salmon’s two-run homer in the fifth inning and pinch-hitter Craig Shipley’s game-tying, two-out, two-run double off reliever Jimmy Key in the seventh.

But the Angels gave it right back in the bottom of the seventh, with newly crowned Angel slayer Mike Bordick keying a four-run rally with a two-run single. It was Bordick’s two-run homer off Troy Percival in the ninth inning Saturday that helped send the Angels to a staggering, 3-2 loss.

Thanks to Tampa Bay, which beat the Rangers, 10-5, Sunday and won two of three games against Texas, the Angels remain a game up with 14 games to play, five of those against the Rangers in the next 10 days.

“If you want to look at some positive things, yeah, we’re still in first place,” Manager Terry Collins said. “We’re fortunate, no doubt about it. We’re still in the driver’s seat. We just can’t worry about the past. . . .

“We’re disappointed [about this weekend], but it’s over. We can’t pout, make excuses, feel sorry for ourselves. We haven’t done that for five months--we’re not going to start now.”

Neither is Angel starter Jack McDowell, who gave up six runs on four walks and three hits, including two-run doubles by Harold Baines and B.J. Surhoff, in the third inning. McDowell was replaced by left-hander Jarrod Washburn, who got Bordick to hit into an inning-ending double play.

“It was just one of those games, one of those innings where I couldn’t get anything done,” McDowell said. “I’ve got to get the ground ball, the double play, and I didn’t do it.”

One grounder he did get ended in disaster for the Angels and led to Baltimore’s first run. With runners on first and second, Brady Anderson grounded to first baseman Chris Pritchett, who had some trouble getting the ball out of his glove before firing to shortstop Gary DiSarcina at second.

But DiSarcina was screened by Roberto Alomar, the Oriole baserunner, and the ball whizzed right past Alomar’s arm and DiSarcina’s glove and into left field, allowing Bordick to score. Eric Davis walked, Baines doubled, Rafael Palmeiro walked, Cal Ripken grounded a run home, and Surhoff doubled for a 6-1 lead.

“I got blocked out,” DiSarcina said of the play, on which Pritchett was charged with the error. “I never saw it until it was on me.”

Washburn gave the Angels a chance to come back with 3 2/3 innings of solid relief, allowing only Anderson’s solo homer in the fourth. After Shipley’s hit tied the score in the seventh, Collins chose to stick with Washburn instead of going to more seasoned relievers such as Pep Harris, Rich DeLucia or Shigetoshi Hasegawa.

The reason: Collins wanted Washburn to face the left-handed Baines and Palmeiro after the right-handed Davis led off the seventh. But Davis walked, Baines singled and Palmeiro doubled home the go-ahead run.

Harris came on and got Ripken to ground to first, but after intentionally walking Surhoff and striking out Chris Hoiles, Bordick singled for two runs and Surhoff scored on a passed ball.

Relievers Jesse Orosco and Armando Benitez closed down the Angels in the eighth and ninth. Game, set and match, Orioles.

“It’s going to take every single game this year to win this thing--it might come down to that last [four-game, season-ending] series in Oakland,” Angel ace Chuck Finley said.

“We don’t have the luxury that the Yankees, Braves or Padres have, where you don’t even have to look at the paper to try to figure out [what it’s going to take to win the division title]. Nothing ever comes easy for us. It never has.”