Catch-Up Leaves a New Stain on Angels

The Angels continued to show a strong finishing kick Saturday night, but they stumbled soon after the gate went up, they were sluggish around the backstretch, and they were a length short of the Texas Rangers at the wire.

In what seems to be a disturbing trend, the Angels expended most of their energy mounting an impressive comeback but had little left at the end, as the Rangers held on for a 6-5 victory before 33,236 at Edison Field.

“It’s been happening a lot,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of the Angels’ early deficits. “It shows we have a lot of heart, but we have to control the bleeding a little earlier. It’s tough coming back every time. It’s great to be a comeback team. You just don’t want to have to prove it every day.”

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 itself and the other three, the Angels trail the Seattle Mariners by only two games as the season approaches the quarter mark.

Even the games the Angels have won in the last two weeks have not been easy--five of the team’s last seven victories have been come-from-behind efforts, including a 9-8 win over Oakland Monday in which the Angels erased a five-run deficit.

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 on sacrifice flies by Bengie Molina and Benji Gil and once in the eighth on Vaughn’s double and Garret Anderson’s RBI single 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 had given up three runs on five hits and needed 39 pitches to record the save in Friday’s 13-11 Ranger victory.

Orlando Palmeiro led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, and Molina singled to left-center, advancing Palmeiro to third. Trent Durrington ran 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 Vaughn, who homered in the first, grounded to short, as Wetteland recorded career save No. 301.

“Most teams have a group of pitchers they use when they’re ahead and another group they use when they’re behind,” Scioscia said. “When you’re behind, you’re always facing some of the more elite pitchers in the game. And usually when you’re coming back, you reach a point where the other guy will make a good pitch and squelch a rally.”

The Angels were in a 5-1 hole because six of the hits left-hander Jarrod Washburn gave up in his first start of 2000 were home runs.

David Segui hit a solo shot to left in the first, and Royce Clayton’s two-run homer to left on a 0-2 slider Washburn was hoping to bounce in the dirt in the sixth inning gave Texas a 5-1 lead.

Ruben Mateo also blasted a fourth-inning ball so far to straight-away center field--it was estimated at 441 feet--that Washburn didn’t even turn to look at it.

“There was no sense in watching because I knew it was gone,” said Washburn, who struck out five and walked three in six innings. “I knew he hit it well. I never believe those measurements, anyway. It was probably about 480 feet. . . .

“If I don’t give up three homers, it’s a great outing. But I’ve got to keep the ball down in the zone, I’ve got to get ahead of hitters better and limit my mistakes.”

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

Opponents are batting .187 against Helling, the second-lowest average allowed in the league behind Boston ace Pedro Martinez (.159) and the fourth-lowest in baseball, and Helling has given up only two earned runs in 20 1/3 innings of his last three starts.

Helling got an assist from all-star catcher Ivan Rodriguez, who leaped at the screen in foul territory to snag Erstad’s popup with two runs already in and a runner on third to end the seventh, denying the league’s hitting leader another swing.