Catch-Up Leaves a New Stain on Angels

The Angels continued to show a strong finishing kick Saturday night, but their stumbles out of the gate and their sluggish showing around the first turn hurt them again.

In what seems to be a growing trend, the Angels expended too much energy mounting an impressive comeback and had little left at the end, as the Texas Rangers held on for a 6-5 victory before 33,236 in Edison Field.

The Angels have lost six of eight games, but in a division with no dominant team, with no team that seems capable of putting considerable distance between themselves and the other three, the Angels, at 18-20, trail the Seattle Mariners by only two games as the season approaches the one-quarter point.

As they did Friday night, the Angels trailed the Rangers by four runs going into the seventh inning, but they scored twice in the seventh and once in the eighth to pull within 5-4.

The Rangers scored an insurance run in the top of the ninth on Mike Lamb’s single off reliever Mike Holtz, Scarborough Green’s sacrifice bunt and Chad Curtis’ RBI single off Shigetoshi Hasegawa to take a 6-4 lead.

Texas then handed the ball to closer John Wetteland, who gave up three runs on five hits and needed 39 pitches to record the save in Friday night’s 13-11 Ranger victory.

Orlando Palmeiro led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, and Bengie Molina singled to left-center, advancing Palmeiro to third. Trent Durrington came on to pinch-run for Molina, and pinch-hitter Scott Spiezio hit a sacrifice fly to left, pulling the Angels within 6-5.

Darin Erstad walked, putting runners on first and second, but Adam Kennedy flied to right and Mo Vaughn grounded to short, as Wetteland recorded career save No. 301.

Angel left-hander Jarrod Washburn, making his first big league start of 2000, gave up only six hits in six innings, but three of them were home runs, David Segui’s solo shot to left in the first, Ruben Mateo’s 441-foot bases-empty blast to straight-away center in the fourth and Royce Clayton’s two-run drive to left in the sixth for a 5-1 lead.

The Rangers also won because all-star catcher Ivan Rodriguez found yet another way to contribute.

Rodriguez’s throwing exploits are well documented. He can shut down opponents’ running game, and Angel Manager Mike Scioscia, no slouch behind the plate himself, said Rodriguez has the best catching arm ever, even better than Johnny Bench and Steve Yeager.

Rodriguez hit .332 with 35 home runs, 113 RBIs and 25 stolen bases during an American League most-valuable-player 1999 season and had a homer and two triples in the Rangers’ win Friday night.

It’s rare that the 5-foot-9, 205-pound catcher can impact a game with his leaping ability, but that’s exactly what he did in the bottom of the seventh Saturday night.

Ranger starter Rick Helling was struggling with his fielding--he dropped Segui’s throw from first on Garret Anderson’s leadoff grounder for an error--and control--he walked Troy Glaus and Palmeiro to load the bases--and sacrifice flies by Molina and Benji Gil pulled the Angels within 5-3.

With Palmeiro advancing to second and then third on the fly balls, Erstad popped a foul ball behind the plate. Rodriguez scooted back and, timing his jump perfectly, leaped high to snag the ball out of the air just before it hit the screen, ending the inning and denying the league’s hitting leader another swing.

Scioscia argued that the ball nicked the screen before Rodriguez’s catch and should have been ruled dead, but third-base umpire Larry Young upheld plate umpire Greg Bonin’s call.

The Angels cut the lead to 5-4 in the eighth when Vaughn, who homered in the first, doubled and scored on Anderson’s single.

Helling, a fastball/curveball pitcher who has added a slider and changeup this season, pitched seven strong innings, giving up three runs--one earned--on three hits, to improve to 5-1.

Opponents are batting only .187 off the Ranger right-hander, the second-lowest average in the league behind Boston ace Pedro Martinez (.159) and the fourth-lowest in baseball.

Helling has given up only two earned runs in 20 1/3 innings of his last three starts.