Another Turbulent Outing for Belcher in Angels’ 6-1 Loss

The fasten-seat-belt sign was illuminated. Heavy turbulence was expected. Tim Belcher was about to pitch the fifth inning.

This has been a white-knuckle frame for the Angel right-hander, who gave up 15 earned runs in the fifth inning of his previous three starts. But a relative calm fell over Belcher Saturday, as he retired three of four Red Sox batters in a scoreless fifth to keep the game close.

Then the oxygen masks dropped in the sixth. One out away from that elusive, potential confidence-building quality start, Belcher gave up a two-out, two-run single to Jose Offerman, part of a four-run inning the propelled the Red Sox to a 6-1 victory before 29,385 in Fenway Park.

The underachieving Belcher was charged with six runs on 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings, his record falling to 1-3 with a 9.89 earned-run average, and an impotent and undermanned Angel lineup managed only four hits, three against Red Sox right-hander Juan Pena, who won in his major league debut.

The Angels have lost five of six games, a stretch in which they’re batting .180 with nine runs, 52 strikeouts and nine walks, and it’s obvious the Southern California Edison Co. has taken its sponsorship of the Angels a bit too far--how many more utility players can you fit into one lineup?

With No. 2 hitter Randy Velarde (stiff lower back) and cleanup batter Tim Salmon (sprained left wrist) sidelined, and center fielder Jim Edmonds and shortstop Gary DiSarcina on the disabled list, the Angels have been forced to use reserves Andy Sheets, Jeff Huson and either Orlando Palmeiro or Tim Unroe as everyday players.

It’s becoming more and more apparent that, as valuable as these players can be in bench roles, they don’t give the Angels enough punch to compete in the big leagues. Especially when the Angel regulars, who have done virtually nothing to stop this skid, are slumping right along with them.

“I’m all done using injuries as an excuse,” said a bewildered Terry Collins, Angel manager. “We have big leaguers, they’re supposed to make adjustments, no matter who they are.

“I don’t know what to say. I sit here, I listen to Rod [Carew, Angel batting instructor] talk about approaches, and he’s talking to the wall. We’re striking out eight times a game--that’s ridiculous. Against Pedro Martinez, I understand . . . “

Martinez, one of baseball’s best pitchers, struck out 15 Friday night, but the Angels were muzzled Saturday by a 21-year-old who did nothing more than mix an average fastball with a good split-fingered pitch, a curve, a slider and a changeup.

“Right now, everyone we face is Cy Young,” Collins said. “I watched seven [Red Sox] hits go to the opposite field, I saw the other team making adjustments, and we’re not doing it. I don’t know if it’s because they see [the short left-field] wall and think they have to hit it there. I don’t know the answer.”

If Carew does, he wasn’t telling. A reporter approached Carew afterward and, before he was even asked for an interview, Carew said: “I’ve got no comment. Absolutely nothing.”

Inaction speaks louder than words: Mo Vaughn is in a one-for-14 slump. Garret Anderson is one for 19. Troy Glaus, a terror in April, has two hits and 10 strikeouts in 23 at-bats. Huson is batting .176. Sheets is hitting .212.

Belcher came within two outs of escaping no-out, bases-loaded jams in the second and third innings Saturday, giving up single runs in each. Thanks to Darin Erstad’s RBI single in the third, the Angels trailed, 2-1, going into the bottom of the sixth.

But Belcher, who pitched beyond the fifth inning for only the second time in seven starts, was plastered in the sixth, when he gave up a double to Troy O’Leary, an RBI single to Scott Hatteberg, a double to Trot Nixon and Offerman’s two-run single.

“This isn’t progress--I want to win--it’s all bad,” said Belcher, who walked one and struck out three. “I felt good the whole day, I just haven’t been making pitches and I’ve been getting beat. There’s not a lot new to say. Just dig up your notes from five days ago and it’s the same . . . “