Going...and Gone

The end came swiftly Tuesday night, but the pain and suffering lasted long into the evening.

Three hours after Oakland scored seven runs in the first two innings en route to a 10-3 victory that eliminated the Angels from playoff contention, Angel left-hander Scott Schoeneweis sat hunched in a corner of the clubhouse, getting a lengthy pep talk from first baseman/crisis counselor Mo Vaughn.

Schoeneweis endured one of his worst nights in the big leagues, giving up seven runs on three hits and walking six in two innings, and all of the A’s runs came after Schoeneweis retired the first two batters in the first and second.

That prolonged a slump in which Schoeneweis has allowed 17 runs on 17 hits in nine innings of his last three starts, all losses. Since his 4-0 start in April, Schoeneweis has gone 3-10, a slide that has put a serious dent in the 26-year-old’s confidence.

“It’s tough enough to deal with yourself in these situations, but you don’t want to hurt the respect you’ve earned from your teammates,” said Schoeneweis, who pitched Tuesday with back stiffness but refused to use that as an excuse.

“I want to pitch well and be successful for the guys I live with six months out of the year. That’s what matters to me. I feel like I’ve let them down, and that’s what I’m battling.”

Vaughn wanted Schoeneweis to know that the Angels are in his corner.

“He’s a rookie, he’s had a few rough games, and I don’t want it to weigh on his mind,” Vaughn said. “Until last week, he was one of the reasons we were in contention. I told him he’s finishing your first big-league season, you’re supposed to enjoy it.

“You learn on the job when you’re young, and you get better. Regardless of his last few starts, he’s got a lot of good things ahead of him. I hate to see young guys hang their heads, because that can leave scars.”

All that is left of the Angels’ season is five games and a lousy consolation prize--because they play Oakland twice and Seattle three times, they will have a say in the American League West and wild-card races.

The A’s moved one step closer to the post-season with Tuesday night’s win, in which right-hander Tim Hudson (19-6) retired 15 straight batters from the first through sixth innings en route to an eight-inning, five-hit, five- strikeout performance.

The split-fingered fastball specialist is 6-0 with a 1.34 earned run average in his last six starts and has limited opponents to a .166 average (27 for 163).

An Oakland Coliseum crowd of 22,234, which included a walk-up of 12,000, saw Jason Giambi blast his 41st home run in the eighth, a three-run shot that elicited chants of “MVP, MVP, MVP,” and Miguel Tejada hit a two-run homer in the second to help the A’s maintain their 1 1/2-game lead over Cleveland in the wild-card race. They are a half-game behind Seattle in the West.

“Obviously we’re eliminated, but you owe it to the game, to the team, and to yourself to prepare for these last few games the way you have for every other one,” Angel outfielder Darin Erstad said.

“We gave our best effort. We battled. We didn’t quit. It just didn’t happen. But there’s no way you can question the desire and heart of this team, because it was incredible.”

So was the Angel offense, which has or will have broken numerous franchise records, and the Angel bullpen, which has a sub-4.00 ERA. But in the final analysis, the Angels simply did not have enough starting pitching to win the West.

They lost six straight from Aug. 31-Sept. 5, their deficit in the division went from four to seven games, and the closest they came the rest of the month was five games.

“We stumbled a bit coming into September and got it going, but it was too late,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “I think we matched up with any club in our division, but our Achilles heel was trying to come back [from early deficits] too often. That catches up to you eventually.”