Angels Just Keep Dropping

You know it could be a rough night when the supposed ace of your staff gets 24 pitches into the game and hasn’t recorded an out.

And when your right fielder so badly misplays a deep fly in the first inning that the ball caroms off the wall and is fielded by ... the second baseman?

Not to mention when it’s the fifth inning, and you’ve already turned the game over to a bullpen tag team of Greg Jones to J.C. Romero to Chris Bootcheck to Dustin Moseley.

Think that was all that befell the Angels on Saturday night?

Wait, there’s more.

A team that has led the American League in errors all season committed a season-high five of them at Ameriquest Field and was battered for 18 hits in a 12-6 loss to the Texas Rangers that all but doused the Angels’ flickering playoff hopes.

The Angels are six games behind Oakland in the AL West with 13 to play, and though seven of their final 10 are against the A’s, it would take a collapse of 1964 Philadelphia Phillies proportions -- that team blew a six-game lead with 12 to play -- for the Angels to reach the playoffs.

No wonder there was dead silence in the Angels clubhouse after the game, even though center fielder Chone Figgins became only the fifth Angel to hit for the cycle and a struggling offense busted out for six runs and 14 hits -- two more runs and one fewer hit than the team had in the previous three games combined.

“As long as we’ve got more games than we are games back, we’ve got to keep getting after it,” said Angels starter John Lackey, who was rocked for six runs and 10 hits in four innings, falling to 11-11.

“You hate to go into those games against Oakland having to win all seven. They’re a tough team and they’re playing well. Hopefully, we can pick up a couple of games before we get there.”

Lackey gave up four hits to open the first inning Saturday, including Carlos Lee’s wind-blown, run-scoring double that right fielder Vladimir Guerrero had trouble tracking. As Guerrero neared the warning track, the ball bounced hard off the wall, then back toward the infield before second baseman Howie Kendrick retrieved it.

Third baseman Maicer Izturis mishandled Hank Blalock’s grounder for an error, and Mark DeRosa’s run-scoring single gave Texas a 4-0 lead before Lackey recorded his first out, on his 25th pitch.

“Things kind of got rolling downhill,” Lackey said, “and I couldn’t stop it.”

Texas scored two runs in the fourth for a 6-2 lead, and Rangers center fielder Gary Matthews Jr. made another highlight-reel catch, leaping at the wall to rob Garret Anderson of a two-run home run that would have pulled the Angels to within 6-5 in the fifth.

Texas tacked on two more runs in the fifth and four in the seventh. Rangers shortstop Michael Young, who had three hits and scored four runs, became the fourth player since 1940 to record at least 200 hits in four consecutive seasons, joining Ichiro Suzuki, Wade Boggs and Kirby Puckett.

The only suspense left was whether Figgins, who blooped a single to left in the second, lined a homer to right in the fifth and doubled to right-center in the seventh, would hit for the cycle.

Figgins, who was dropped from the leadoff spot to ninth in the order on Sept. 6, tripled to left-center in the ninth for the sixth cycle in Angels history -- Jim Fregosi did it twice -- and first since Jeff DaVanon accomplished the feat on Aug. 25, 2004, against Kansas City.

“Figgins has that potential,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He has good power for a little guy, and he’s always a threat for extra bases with that speed. It was a great accomplishment, one of our few bright spots tonight, but the bottom line is winning, and I think if you asked Chone, he’d trade the cycle for a win.”

Said Figgins: “It has its meaning ... but it’s hard to enjoy when you lose.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com