Frustration, Sorrow Grow in Angel Loss

ANAHEIM — The Angels showed signs they might be emerging from the depths of their worst week of the season, outplaying the Kansas City Royals for the final seven innings Friday night, but they couldn’t overcome their early blunders and lost, 5-3, in front of 35,977 in Anaheim Stadium.

That’s five consecutive losses and 10 in their last 11 games, a skid that has dropped the Angels 11 1/2 games behind the Texas Rangers, their largest deficit of 1996 and the farthest the club has been off the pace since the final day of the 1993 season, when they were 23 games back.

Frustration is mounting with each loss, as batting instructor Rod Carew became the fourth Angel this week to be ejected for arguing with an umpire, his verbal tirade at Tim McClelland earning him a trip to the clubhouse after the sixth inning.

Center fielder Jim Edmonds was so disgusted he said he’s going to stop talking to reporters, “because everything that’s written is bad,” he said.

“When it gets better, I’ll talk, but I don’t want to contribute to the back-stabbing, the griping, the bad stories and television reports . . . I’ve had enough.”

So, it seems, have the Angels, who appear to be struggling to find any motivation after Tuesday’s resignation of Manager Marcel Lachemann and the dismissal of three coaches.

“You have to be professional, that’s what this boils down to,” said shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who was appointed co-captain with pitcher Chuck Finley on Friday. “We get paid pretty damn well to be doing what we’re doing, and you’ve got to take pride in it.

“We can’t get caught up in all the other stuff going on. It’s hard to do with so many distractions, but you have to harden yourself to those. When the bell rings, you have to be a professional.”

The Angels were knocked out soon after the opening bell Friday. Jose Offerman led off the game with a homer, the Royals added another run in the first, and they scored three in the second with the help of a wild pitch and a poor play by left fielder Garret Anderson to take a 5-0 lead.

Tom Goodwin had singled to left with runners on second and third, but Anderson hopped twice on his plant foot and double-pumped before throwing wildly to the plate and had no chance to get Offerman at home.

Angel starter Mark Langston recovered nicely, shutting down the Royals on one hit from the third through eighth innings, but the Angels squandered too many opportunities to come back.

Rex Hudler’s lead-off homer in the sixth made it 5-1, and Chili Davis and Edmonds singled with one out. But Michael Tucker fielded Tim Salmon’s bloop to shallow right field and forced Edmonds at second, and Randy Velarde grounded out to end the inning.

Hudler tripled to open the eighth and scored on DiSarcina’s double to make it 5-2. Davis then struck out, but Edmonds singled in a run to make it 5-3, and Salmon walked to put runners on first and second.

But Kansas City closer Jeff Montgomery came on to retire Velarde on a fly ball to center and Anderson on a grounder in front of the plate, and Montgomery retired the side in order in the ninth for his 22nd save.

“They’re going through a bad time now, but that team scares me to death,” Royal Manager Bob Boone said of the Angels. “They’re going to explode . . . I just hope we’re out of town when they do.”

Jose Rosado, a Royal rookie, gave up three hits in five shutout innings to earn the victory despite knocking himself out of the game.

After J.T. Snow looked at a knee-high fastball, right down the middle of the plate, for a called third strike with runners on second and third in the fifth, Todd Greene lifted a popup toward the Royal dugout.

Rosado lunged into the dugout to make a magnificent, inning-ending catch, suffering a bruised left hand and left knee.

“Mike [Sweeney, Royal catcher] was yelling, ‘No, no, no,’ but I guess that guy [Rosado] likes to play hard and get after it,” Greene said. “That was a great play for them and a tough one for us.”