Tavares Pounds Out Biggest Hits as Angels Hammer the Red Sox

The lackluster play of the last-place Angels has been disappointing enough, but what has really perturbed team President Tony Tavares has been the lack of chemistry in the clubhouse.

“To me, that speaks to the true failure of the team,” Tavares said during the Angels’ 8-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox before 26,175 in Edison Field Thursday night. “All this finger-pointing . . . is destructive to the concept of the team.

“You learn about yourself when you go through bad times, and we’ve seen some things we don’t like. We’ve done things to each other that people who are blood enemies wouldn’t do. There isn’t a sense of oneness.”

The Angels have lost 16 of 21 games since the All-Star break, falling apart on the field and disintegrating in the clubhouse amid a series of self-inflicted wounds.

Darin Erstad called the Angels “soft” and questioned whether winning was the team’s No. 1 priority. Mo Vaughn said the Angels were “lackadaisical.” Gary DiSarcina ripped his teammates for being “unprofessional.” Earlier this season, players criticized Manager Terry Collins.

In a pregame radio interview with KLAC’s Larry Kahn, Tavares said fans and team owners should be disappointed and angry with the Angels.

“The fans have put out their hard-earned money and Disney has put out its money,” Tavares said. “We have signed players and paid them exactly what they wanted. They get paid on time. We put them in a good environment. The clubhouse is gorgeous. The field is gorgeous. . . .

“It’s time for the players to accept responsibility and go out and do what they can do best, which is give a maximum effort. That’s all in the eyes of the beholder. In most cases, the players say they’re playing hard. I think physically that’s true, but I don’t think mentally that’s true. That’s where we’re lacking right now.”

It would be difficult for Tavares to criticize the Angels’ effort Thursday night. They played their best game since the All-Star break, pounding out 14 hits to back the superb pitching of Chuck Finley.

Jim Edmonds, in his fourth game back since recovering from shoulder surgery, had two doubles, two singles, two runs, two stolen bases and a run batted in, Troy Glaus hit a three-run homer, and catcher Ben Molina, in his second major league start, had RBI singles in the sixth and seventh.

Garret Anderson added three hits, Orlando Palmeiro had two singles, a sacrifice fly and a beautiful diving catch of Nomar Garciaparra’s liner to left in the eighth, and Finley, who was nearly traded last weekend, threw seven shutout innings, giving up four hits and striking out seven.

This was the kind of surge Tavares expected in the second half, but when Saturday’s trade deadline passed and Finley was still in Anaheim, the Angels lost to the Twins, 8-0, that night. When Tim Salmon returned from a 2 1/2-month stint on the disabled list, the Angels lost 10 consecutive games.

“When you have events like a player coming back from injury, you should get a ‘spike’ off that,” Tavares said in the radio interview. “Or the other night when Chuck didn’t get traded, we should have gotten a ‘spike’ off that. And none of that has happened. It’s kind of inexplicable.

“You wonder if there’s a pulse sometimes down there. It’s no one person’s fault. I’m not trying to indict one particular person. It’s a collective effort. It’s really been sad this year. . . .

“Certainly, we can’t control the injuries that have happened, but we should have acted better, and we should have gotten through this adversity. You get through by leadership, and that’s one of the things that’s lacking on this team.”

Tavares said he will use the last two months of the season to analyze “everything that has gone right and wrong,” from the front office to the manager to the players. Will major changes be made?

“If the season continues the way it has the last 20 games, absolutely,” Tavares said.