Falling Angels Now Two Back in West

The losses came fast and furiously in the summer of 1995. The Angels lost 27 of 35 games, lost nine consecutive games twice and lost an 11-game lead to the Seattle Mariners in a mere six weeks.

For all those losses, however, the 1995 Angels never lost four games in four days. In this most wretched week of an otherwise magical season, though, the 1998 Angels accomplished exactly that. And guess who provided the opposition Friday? The Mariners, of course, hanging on for 12 innings before handing the Angels a devastating 5-3 defeat. The Angels awoke Tuesday with a two-game lead over the Texas Rangers, but their fourth straight loss dropped them two back of Texas with nine to play.

“If we’re going to talk about resilient, now’s the time,” Manager Terry Collins said. “We’ve been talking about it for three months. Now is when it pays off.”

The Angels’ bullpen, a model of resilience Friday, preserved flagging pennant hopes. After the Angels yanked starter Ken Hill in the fourth inning, five relievers--Jason Dickson, Mike Holtz, Troy Percival, Jarrod Washburn and Rich DeLucia--retired the next 22 batters in order.

But the Angels neglected to score after Jim Edmonds homered in the third inning, and the bullpen finally gave out in the 12th. With two on and one out, the Angels called on Shigetoshi Hasegawa for the third time in four days.

David Segui, limited to pinch-hitting because of a knee injury, came off the Seattle bench to double home the winning run. Alex Rodriguez doubled home an insurance run, and the Angels better stop the bleeding now if they want those three games with the Rangers next week to matter.

“There’s no panic,” Percival said. “They were six games up. We caught them. We were three games up. They caught us. There’s still time for the lead to change three or four times.”

For all the fuss about Chuck Finley, the Angels’ ace, Hill could well be the one that determines whether the season extends into the playoffs. Finley, who has won once in his past five starts, will get another shot at Texas Monday or Tuesday.

Hill, the only Angel pitcher to start a World Series game, is slated to start Wednesday, in the final scheduled game between the Angels and Rangers. If the teams must settle a tie in a one-game playoff next Monday, Hill is slated to start that game too.

While Hill is penciled in for those starts, the Angels have an eraser handy. Hill took a line drive off his pitching hand 10 days ago, and bruises on three fingers forced the Angels to delay his next start until Friday.

The results were not pretty. Hill retired the side in order in the first inning, then allowed hits to seven of the next 14 batters and departed in the fourth inning, with the score tied, 3-3, and pitching coach Marcel Lachemann telling Collins that Hill felt some discomfort. “It was just more frustrating than anything else,” Hill said. “We’ll take it day by day and see how I feel.”

Dickson, a displaced starter, replaced Hill and silenced the Mariners. Dickson faced 11 batters, retiring them all.

The next batters he face may wear “TEXAS” on the front of their uniforms. If the Angels opt not to start Hill against the Rangers Wednesday, they could well turn to Dickson, who opened the season in the rotation but was banished to the bullpen in May and banished to the minor leagues in August.

The early innings evoked an ominous reminder of defeat. In Thursday’s loss at Texas, the Angels scored four runs in the first inning, but the Rangers immediately answered with four of their own.

Back home Friday, the Angels scored two runs in the first inning, but the Mariners immediately matched.

Without Edmonds, the Angels might not have scored at all. Of the Angels’ nine runs over the past two days, Edmonds has driven in five. In the first inning Friday, Edmonds doubled home Randy Velarde and later scored on a single by Gregg Jefferies. In the third inning, Edmonds hit his second home run in two days and 24th of the season.

The Mariners scored twice in the second, on a two-out double by rookie Ryan Radmanovich, and once in the third, on a two-out single by Edgar Martinez.

* DODGERS LOSE: Bonds’ home run in the eighth inning keeps Giants’ wild-card hopes alive. C5

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AL WEST RACE

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Team W L GB Rangers 83 70 -- ANGELS 81 72 2

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