Pounded!

For a guy who doesn’t like team meetings, Angel Manager Terry Collins spent a long time conducting one Tuesday night.

After getting thrashed by the Toronto Blue Jays, 13-2, before 21,165 in the SkyDome, Collins and the Angels spent 45 minutes discussing what ails this last-place club and how to make it better.

Hard to believe it took only 45 minutes.

Starter Tim Belcher and relievers Mike Magnante and Al Levine combined to give up nine runs on nine hits Tuesday . . . in the sixth inning.

The Angels managed six hits, and their team batting average fell to .258, 13th in the American League. They’re last in the league in runs, doubles, walks, stolen bases and on-base percentage.

They’ve lost seven of 10 games to fall to 29-34, they’ve scored 15 runs in the last seven games, and they’ve scored four runs or more in two of the last 20 games. And somehow the Angels are seven games out of first place, which doesn’t say much for the A.L. West.

“That’s what Terry was trying to do, put things in perspective,” Angel designated hitter Mo Vaughn said. “It’s not a long haul to get to first place. A few wins, a few losses [by Texas] and you’re back into the mix. . . . You have to take small bites instead of trying to eat the whole thing.”

The offense is more gristle than meat, though. Three of the Angels’ best players, right fielder Tim Salmon, center fielder Jim Edmonds and shortstop Gary DiSarcina, are injured, and their lineup simply lacks the muscle to compete in the hitters’ haven that is the American League.

“But nobody cares about excuses,” Collins said. “This meeting wasn’t about injuries.”

Collins wouldn’t elaborate on the meeting but emphasized that it “was called by me--strictly me.”

Belcher, who gave up eight runs on 11 hits in five innings Tuesday and has been ripped for 19 earned runs on 30 hits in 14 1/3 innings by the Blue Jays in three starts, said Collins never went into a rage.

“He wasn’t upset at all,” Belcher said. “It was just an exchange of ideas, a lot of guys talking. There was no screaming, no one hit anybody. There are some frustrated guys in here, and that’s good. Anyone who enjoys being in last place shouldn’t be here.”

As smooth a transition as Vaughn has made from Boston to Anaheim, he admits he’s not crazy about the neighborhood the Angels reside in.

“I haven’t been in last place for a long time, at any level,” Vaughn said. “I’m uncomfortable at the park and at home. It’s tough to take, and we’re getting more frustrated as a team.”

The Blue Jays seemed to be the team on the verge of ruin entering this series. Since opening with a 12-4 record, Toronto has gone 17-32.

There have been reports that cleanup hitter Carlos Delgado is on the trading block after turning down a contract extension offer, and rumors that ace David Wells, who gave up two runs on five hits in seven innings Tuesday, is being shopped around.

But these guys have nothing on the Angels, who have been decimated by injuries, whose clubhouse seemed divided over Collins’ potential contract extension, and whose offense has flat-lined all month.

And now the starting pitching, which has kept the Angels in so many games, is beginning to slip.

“I made more mistakes over the middle of the plate [Tuesday] than I did in my last four starts combined,” Belcher said. “I wasn’t sharp.”

Neither was Levine, who gave up two singles and a walk in the sixth, or Magnante, who has given up seven runs on eight hits in 2 1/3 innings of his last two appearances.

“When you get a team down, you’ve got to beat them, just like Toronto did to us tonight,” Belcher said. “And when you’re down, you can’t look beat. . . .

“We’ve also got to take feelings out of the mix. The only thing that should hurt our feelings is losing, and that’s basically what needed to be said [in the meeting]. Go ahead and get disgusted with yourself and your teammates, because you should be.”