Two Bad, Two Back

In this stressful and suspense-filled September, where one big game has begotten another bigger game for the Angels, there is simply no game bigger than tonight’s.

The Angels were thrashed again by Texas, 9-1, before a crowd of 38,987 in Edison Field on Tuesday night, falling two games behind the Rangers in the American League West with five games remaining.

The teams complete their three-game series tonight, and an Angel victory would pull them to within one game and give them at least some hope of catching the Rangers this weekend, when Texas closes with four games at Seattle and the Angels play four games in Oakland.

But a Ranger victory tonight would give Texas a three-game lead with four to play, leaving the Angels with about as much chance of winning the division as their team trainers have of getting the rest of the week off.

The Angels have been depleted by injuries to key players all season and have persevered. They have suffered numerous gut-wrenching losses all summer but have rebounded every time, somehow managing to stay at or near the top of the division.

Tonight, they find out if their reservoir of resiliency is finite.

“Our pride is at stake,” Manager Terry Collins said. “We have five games left, and if we win [tonight] we’re one game out with four to go. Then we have to go to Oakland and take care of business.

“We’ve played our hearts out all year and haven’t quit yet.”

But they did show signs Tuesday night that they are about to crack. While reporters were interviewing Collins in a conference room after the game, an unidentified Angel player or coach could be heard screaming obscenities in the clubhouse.

Though there were no apparent signs of a scuffle, reporters were quickly ushered out of the clubhouse until tensions had eased.

The Angels didn’t show that kind of fight during the game. If Collins called Monday night’s 9-1 loss to the Rangers “the worst game we’ve played in 3 1/2 months,” then Tuesday night’s debacle, which included three Angel errors, was certainly the worst game they’ve played in the past 24 hours.

Ranger right-hander Rick Helling, pitching with pain and stiffness in his upper left back, was a pain in the neck for the Angels, giving up only one run on three hits in eight masterful innings, striking out five and walking none.

Garret Anderson’s eighth-inning triple and Matt Walbeck’s sacrifice fly broke up Helling’s shutout, but until then, only two Angels had reached base against the right-hander, who became the third 20-game winner in Ranger history, joining Ferguson Jenkins (1974) and Kevin Brown (1992).

Texas blew the game open during a five-run eighth inning that included ex- Angel Luis Alicea’s three-run home run and solo shots by Rusty Greer and Juan Gonzalez, but the game was essentially won in the seventh, when the Rangers scored three runs without a hit.

Nursing a 1-0 lead on the strength of their unearned run in the first, Royce Clayton opened the inning with a walk off Angel starter Chuck Finley, who had found just enough command of his fastball and bite on his forkball to blank the Rangers from the second through the sixth.

Alicea failed on two tries to bunt Clayton to second, then took four balls for a walk. Roberto Kelly dropped a bunt to the mound, where Finley, who has never won a Gold Glove award and never will, slipped to his knees and got up before fielding the ball.

It appeared Finley had a shot to force Clayton at third, but the left-hander instead turned and fired to first. Well, make that in the general direction of first. The ball sailed well over Darin Erstad’s head and into foul territory, allowing Clayton to score and the runners to advance to second and third.

Greer’s sacrifice fly and Will Clark’s RBI fielder’s choice against reliever Mike Holtz gave Texas a 4-0 lead and sent the Rangers well on their way to their fourth consecutive victory over the Angels, the first two coming in Arlington last week.

Finley, who has lost his last nine decisions to the Rangers and now has a 7-16 record against them, went 6 1/3 innings, giving up four hits and four runs, one of them earned, but walking seven.

“Finley gave us a great outing and we gave him absolutely nothing to work with,” Collins said. “There’s no magic formula here. We just have to reach down one more time. We have Ken Hill on the mound [tonight], and you have to feel good about that.

“We just have to catch the ball, throw the ball over the plate and get some hits with runners in scoring position . . . and get some runners in scoring position first.”

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* RANDY HARVEY: The crowd was an improvement over Monday but still not acceptable for a series of this magnitude. C2

* CAREFUL OF WISH: Gary DiSarcina doesn’t mind losing as much as he minds when the Angels play poorly. But this series has both. C7