Angels Are Cooled Off as Showdown Looms

The Angels once again boarded the broad shoulders of Vladimir Guerrero on Thursday, hoping their most-valuable-player candidate could carry them to the threshold of the playoffs. But not even another herculean effort from the hot-hitting right fielder could propel them to victory.

Despite four hits from Guerrero, who slugged two home runs and drove in three runs, the injury-depleted Angels lost to the Texas Rangers, 6-3, in front of 23,036 in Ameriquest Field, dropping into a first-place tie with Oakland in the American League West going into tonight’s season-ending, three-game series against the Athletics in Network Associates Coliseum.

Right-hander John Lackey lost control of his breaking ball, walking five in a 4 1/3 -inning, seven-hit, five-run effort, and the Angels lost their exclusive hold on first place when the A’s defeated the Mariners, 3-2, on Bobby Crosby’s walk-off home run.

So, after six months and 159 games, it has come down to this: Win two of three against the A’s, and the Angels are in the playoffs against either New York or Boston. Lose two of three to the A’s, and the Angels go home. There is no chance the teams could finish in a tie and force a one-game playoff Monday.

“This is it -- it’s our three best [pitchers] against their best three,” Angel first baseman Darin Erstad said. “Forget about what’s happened to this point. It’s a three-game season.”

Angel right-hander Bartolo Colon will oppose Oakland left-hander Mark Mulder tonight, Kelvim Escobar will square off against Barry Zito on Saturday, and Jarrod Washburn will face Tim Hudson on Sunday.

All three Angel pitchers will start on three days’ rest, and for the Angels to advance, they will need stronger performances on short rest than they received from Washburn on Wednesday night (five runs, nine hits in four innings) and Lackey on Thursday.

Lackey, who had given up seven earned runs in 34 innings of his previous five starts, struck out seven in the first four innings, getting Texas to chase breaking balls out of the strike zone, but the Rangers wised up and began laying off those pitches.

With the score tied, 1-1, in the fifth, Lackey gave up singles to Laynce Nix and Michael Young and walked Hank Blalock with one out to load the bases.

Kevin Mench worked the count full, and Lackey threw a curve in the dirt for ball four to force in a run. Adrian Gonzalez followed with a shot to the hole on the left side of the infield, and the ball glanced off third baseman Dallas McPherson’s glove and into left-center. That scored two runs, and Chad Allen’s sacrifice fly made it 5-1.

Chone Figgins singled in the sixth, and Guerrero, who hit a solo home run in the fourth inning, belted his 38th homer of the year. This drive was to center off Chris Young, the 6-foot-10 right-hander who has defeated the Angels twice in 12 days.

But Nix tripled and scored on Michael Young’s sacrifice fly off reliever Kevin Gregg in the bottom of the sixth to make it 6-3, and the Angels, without injured center fielder Garret Anderson and second baseman Adam Kennedy and suspended left fielder Jose Guillen, went down meekly in the last three innings, their win streak ending at five.

Guerrero had half of the Angel hits Thursday and drove in all of their runs, completing a monster four-game series in which he was 12 for 17 with five home runs and nine runs batted in. He set a franchise record with his 122nd run in the fourth and is batting .338 with 38 homers, 124 RBIs and 123 runs.

“Guerrero -- are we facing him tomorrow? Are we done with him?” Ranger Manager Buck Showalter said, glad to see the Angel slugger leaving town. “He’s something. He’s really something.”

In his first pennant race after spending his first seven seasons in Montreal, Guerrero is batting .400 with 10 homers and 21 RBIs in 21 games since Sept. 9.

“He’s been amazing -- he’s really given us a lift,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Hopefully, the guys around him will pick it up some.”

After the Angels gained a share of first place with Tuesday’s win, Scioscia cautioned against getting too confident. “This thing could change in a heartbeat,” he said.

It did Thursday, the struggling A’s getting a huge emotional lift from Crosby’s homer and the Angels cooling off against the Rangers. The three Oakland starters -- Mulder (0-3, 8.10 earned-run average), Zito (1-2, 4.54 ERA) and Hudson (2-2, 6.23 ERA) -- are struggling in September, but the Angel lineup is a bit depleted.

“I had hoped we’d be up by 20 games right now, but as the season progressed, I figured it might come down to the wire,” Washburn said. “And it has.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Collision Course

The three-game series in Oakland will feature the best-hitting team in the American League against what might be the best pitching staff in the league (AL rank):

*--* ANGELS’ HITTING Batting Average 283 (1) Runs Scored 819 (6) Hits 1,576 (1) Home Runs 159 (10) ATHLETICS’ PITCHING Earned-run average 4.14 (2) Complete games 10 (1) Home runs given up 161 (4) Strikeouts 1,016 (7)

*--*