After Going Flat on Road to Playoffs, a Struggling Team Is Still on the Bubble

So, this was supposed to be the trip that would put the finishing touches on the playoff mettle that the Angels had been demonstrating in preparation for the real thing.

Well, those good intentions are suddenly taking on the appearance of wishful thinking.

Sunday, the Angels lost for the fifth time in seven games on the trip, failed for the second straight day to clinch a playoff berth and dropped three games behind the Oakland A’s in the American League West.

The key question as the cases of Domaine Ste. Michelle were being loaded on an equipment truck parked outside of their Safeco Field clubhouse was this:

How well will that champagne travel?

Put another way:

How well will the Angels travel after failing to clinch that playoff berth here in two games of the type they generally win?

A Troy Glaus throwing error was pivotal in Saturday’s 6-4 loss, and there was a series of less glaring mistakes Sunday as the Angels, who know how to win games decided by one run, as evidenced by their 23-7 record going in, lost to the Seattle Mariners, 3-2.

With six games to play and still needing only one win, or losses by Seattle and Boston, to end their 16-year playoff drought, it seems premature to suggest the Angels are pressing, or that they have revived memories of 1995, when they blew a 13-game August lead and eventually lost a one-game division playoff to the Mariners.

Then again, this is a team, or at least an organization, haunted by the ghosts of more seasons than just ‘95, and Jarrod Washburn--far too young to be familiar with all of them--conceded that today’s off day in Texas (the Angels open a three-game series against the Rangers Tuesday night) is coming at the right time.

“I’m very disappointed in our performance the last two days,” Washburn said, “but it’s not life and death. We know it takes one more win. We’ll go to Texas, clear our minds and get back to business Tuesday.”

Said Adam Kennedy: “I’d say that if we were anxious the last couple days to get [the clinching] out of the way, that anxiousness will go away now.”

Some might say the anxiety will only increase until the Angels make it happen, but they certainly will have two things going for them when they return to work.

* The hapless Rangers have lost nine of their last 11 games in a season of 86 losses.

* The A’s will open a three-game series against the Mariners by sending Barry Zito (22-5), the likely Cy Young Award winner, against Ismael Valdes (8-11), a seeming mismatch.

Of course, the A’s-Mariner series is something of a catch-22.

If the Angels can’t take care of their business in Texas, they will need the A’s to win at least one game from the Mariners.

The problem with that, however, is they also need the Mariners to beat the A’s if they have any chance--as unrealistic as it is--to overtake the A’s for the division title.

The A’s need only a combination of three wins or Angel losses to win the West.

The cold reality is that the Angels are headed to New York as the wild card, if they can ever reduce their magic number--an almost tantalizing and taunting one--to zero.

“We didn’t want the Angels and A’s to celebrate on our field,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said. “We held off the Angels, now we get the A’s.

“We owe it to the Angels to play our regular lineup and play as hard as we can. The other night I congratulated [Angel Manager] Mike Scioscia on the great job he’s done this year and promised him we’d give it our best shot against Oakland.

“Of course, we’re still thinking about the playoffs ourselves.”

Or as Jeff Nelson said after saving Sunday’s victory, keeping the Mariners alive: “The last candle on the mantel hasn’t been burned out yet.”

If the flame is still flickering by the time the Mariners come to Anaheim Friday night for the final three-game series, the Angels’ anxiety level might be off the charts.

The panacea in the meantime would be an offensive awakening of the type they have found difficult while facing a series of quality starters on this trip, including Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson and Zito in Oakland, and Joel Pineiro, Freddy Garcia and Ryan Franklin in Seattle.

Eliminating the 8-1 rout of Pineiro Friday night, the Angels have averaged 2.8 runs in the other six games, not scoring more than four in any.

Scioscia knows that good pitching is the theme in the postseason and that the Angels will have to deal with Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina if they face the Yankees.

“I still believe our offense matches up with some of this better pitching,” he said. “I don’t think we’re pressing. I think we’re going about it the same way.

“We just couldn’t get into our style of baseball the last two days.”

On Sunday, the Angels had only one run and four hits through seven innings against Franklin, who, Piniella said, has pitched well enough in what is tantamount to his first full season to earn a spot in next year’s rotation.

When the Angels closed to 3-2 against Franklin and Arthur Rhodes in the eighth, Nelson came in to strike out Glaus with two runners on base and then pitched a perfect ninth.

Washburn, who pitched well enough to notch his 19th win and keep alive his now-dead hopes for 20, couldn’t prevent rookie second baseman Willie Bloomquist from getting his first four major league hits--two doubles and two singles.

The Angels also were betrayed by little things that they have generally been able to force their way. A Washburn wild pitch that Bengie Molina blocked but couldn’t control set up one of the Seattle runs. A ground ball that first baseman Scott Spiezio actually lost in the glare of the sun set up another. Brad Fullmer, on second with one out in the seventh, misread a grounder to the mound and was nailed in a rundown.

“I’ve always believed that good pitching holds off good hitting, but we should have won some of these games,” Kennedy said.

The Angels won’t face a similar caliber of pitching in Texas, where they hope their bats get hot and the champagne will still be cold.