Angels Roll Over, Play Dead

The Angels keep trying to run away from their ugly past, from their reputation as a team that suffers from the September shakes, but that’s hard to do with strained hamstrings and torn foot ligaments and twisted ankles, and bats that seem to be filled with lead.

Burdened by injuries and seemingly paralyzed by the pressure of a pennant race, the Angels are about to succumb to history once again, with the finish line to 1998 only four days away.

They lost to the Texas Rangers, 7-1, before a sellout crowd of 42,776 in Edison Field on Wednesday night, dropping three games behind the Rangers in the American League West with four games remaining.

The Angels, who lost five games to Texas in eight days, have not been mathematically eliminated, but they will need a miracle to win the division or to finish in a tie and force a one-game playoff with Texas on Monday.

The Rangers’ magic number is two, meaning they need only one victory in their final four games at Seattle and one Angel loss in their last four games at Oakland to clinch their second division championship in three years.

The Angels’ tragic numbers are 55-95. That is the team’s combined record in the last seven Septembers, and it is the reason they have not won a division title since 1986.

They are 7-13 this September, and though they did not suffer a colossal collapse like 1995, when they had an 11-game lead on Aug. 3 and blew it, there is no denying it: The Angels crumbled down the stretch.

A 3-0 victory over Kansas City on Sept. 6 gave the Angels a 3 1/2-game lead over the Rangers, but in the next 17 days the Angels dropped 6 1/2 games in the standings.

They have lost 11 of their last 14 games, and in their head-to-head showdown against the Rangers, they were swept twice, in a two-game series last week and a three-game series this week. They were outscored, 25-3, in the three games in Anaheim.

For the third time in four years, it appears the Angels, who were eliminated from wild-card contention Wednesday, will end September in disappointment after beginning the final month of the season in contention.

“We’re never going to get [that reputation] out of people’s heads until we fight through it and change it,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “Until we do, people are going to talk and talk and talk about it. We don’t do well in September. It’s right there in black and white. It’s history.”

So was the Angel offense against Texas. They managed only one run on two hits in eight innings Wednesday night off Ranger right-hander John Burkett, who has allowed the most earned runs (122) in the league, and they had four hits in the game.

In five critical games against Texas with the division title on the line, the Angels hit .204 (34 for 167) with 12 runs and three homers. The Rangers hit .302 (51 for 169) with 37 runs and seven homers.

Angel starter Ken Hill kept his team close Wednesday night, giving up three runs on four hits in 6 1/3 innings, but the Rangers broke open a 3-1 game with three runs off Troy Percival in the eighth, on Ivan Rodriguez’s RBI single and Todd Zeile’s two-run home run.

The Rangers snapped a 1-1 tie in the fourth when Will Clark doubled into the right-field corner and took third on Rodriguez’s fly ball. Hill walked Lee Stevens, and Zeile drilled a grounder that nicked Hill’s glove before going into center field to score Clark for a 2-1 lead.

The Rangers took advantage of an Angel error to score an unearned run in the seventh, Stevens doubling to open the inning and Zeile drawing a walk.

Hill made a nice play to force pinch-runner Milt Cuyler at third on Royce Clayton’s bunt, but second baseman Randy Velarde could not stab Tom Goodwin’s hard grounder toward the hole, as the Rangers loaded the bases. Former Angel Mark McLemore’s sacrifice fly made it 3-1.

Texas staked Burkett to a 1-0 lead on Rusty Greer’s sacrifice fly in the first, and Burkett retired the first six batters he faced, striking out Jim Edmonds and Tim Salmon with off-speed pitches.

But an unlikely pair jolted the Angel offense to life--temporarily, it turned out--in the third when catcher Chad Kreuter, making his second start since being acquired from the White Sox last week, opened with a ground-rule double to left.

Third baseman Craig Shipley, making his first start in a week, was successful in his attempt to advance Kreuter to third with a ground ball to the right side, but he got an added bonus: His grounder scooted past McLemore at second for an RBI single and a 1-1 tie.

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BY THE NUMBERS

2-6: Angels’ record since playing Texas to begin 12-game stretch run with a one-game lead in the AL West.

0-5: Angels’ record against Texas during that stretch.

3: Runs for Angels in last three games against Texas.

25: Runs for Texas in last three games.

.272: Angels’ team batting average.

.216: Angels’ team batting average in last eight games.

12: Seasons since Angels last qualified for the playoffs.