Angels Hit, but Indians Hit Harder : Baseball: Cleveland pitchers give up 13 hits, but Hill and Belle hit two-run homers to beat Langston, 5-2.

Getting 13 hits Sunday might have been a step in the right direction for the Angels, but by not converting those hits into runs, it meant another step the other way.

Their 5-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians before 34,044 at Anaheim Stadium left the Angels seven games out of first place, the biggest gap they have faced this season. Their third consecutive loss left them in a tie for fifth place with the Seattle Mariners, four games out of last place.

Since taking the AL West lead after a 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on July 3, the Angels have lost 11 of 14 games. They dropped seven of 10 on the home stand that ended Sunday. That home stand featured the Indians, whose 31-59 record is the worst in the major leagues, the Baltimore Orioles, whose AL East deficit has long been in the teens, and the New York Yankees, who are hovering around .500.

“We’re in a situation now where we’ve got to play well,� Dave Parker said. “It’s getting a little late into the season for anything else. This puts us in a situation where we can’t afford to slip anymore.�

They could scarcely afford to squander so many scoring chances, either, but did it anyway. After Max Venable’s sacrifice fly scored Luis Polonia, who led off the game with a triple to left, the Angels stranded four runners in the middle innings and couldn’t get another run against Charles Nagy (5-10) until the seventh inning.

By then, Mark Langston (13-4) had given up a two-run home run to Glenallen Hill in the third inning, a run-scoring single to Brook Jacoby in the fourth and a two-run homer in the sixth to Albert Belle, the left fielder’s third home run in three games.

“I’ve seen us try to be very loose,� Dave Winfield said. “I’ve seen us try to tighten up. I don’t know what to tell you.

“I’m sure it’ll get better when we’re on the road. Our backs are against the wall. We’ve got to make a move. This road trip and the next home stand will tell the story. The next 30 days will tell the story.�

The Indians have hit the fewest homers in the league, but they hit two against the Angels Sunday to increase their total to 46. The Indians are among the league’s worst defensive teams, yet the Angels grounded into four double plays in to help Cleveland win the last three games of the series. The Indians also got a superb throw in the eighth inning from right fielder Mark Whiten, preventing Dave Gallagher from scoring from second on Gary Gaetti’s pinch single. “He doesn’t come up with that throw and it’s 5-3 with men on second and third,� Gallagher said.

The Angels’ record at Anaheim Stadium fell to 24-26, making them one of five AL teams below .500 at home. They haven’t hit a home run in 108 innings, since a third-inning homer by Winfield on July 3 at Texas.

“It’s really bad,� Polonia said. “Knowing Cleveland was coming to town, I thought we had a chance to get close (to the first-place Minnesota Twins). But Cleveland is a big-league team, and you can’t take them for granted. Maybe that’s what we did, took them for granted.�

Hardly a wise attitude, if true. Nagy, a teammate of Angel left-hander Jim Abbott on the 1988 U.S. Olympic Baseball team, didn’t walk a batter in 6 2/3 innings and reliever Jesse Orosco extricated the Indians from a bases-loaded jam in the seventh by getting Wally Joyner to fly to left.

“I know the Angels are going bad,� Indian Manager Mike Hargrove said, “but with guys like Gaetti, Winfield, Joyner and Polonia . . . you’ve got to do something (right) or they’ll hit the ball, I don’t care how bad they’re going.�

Going on a 10-game trip might be the tonic for what ails the Angels.

“I don’t think we can get more down,� Polonia said. “I feel like I’m sinking with everybody and everybody’s sinking deep. We don’t have anywhere to go but up.�

Manager Doug Rader said of the upcoming journey to Baltimore, New York, Cleveland and Detroit: “I just hope wherever we land, we start winning. We can’t start thinking we can’t win here.�

Winning anywhere would be a start.

“Right now, there’s a lot of shaking heads,� Venable said. “Everybody’s pretty confused, trying to figure out what the problem is.

“I don’t think seven games out is really out too far. We’ve still got all of August and September. It’s a long ways to go. We’ve still got to play Minnesota and we can gain some ground then. By no means should we push the panic button. But we’ve got to pick up the pace somewhere along the line before it starts getting out of hand.�

Angel Attendance

Sunday: 34,044

1990 (50 dates): 1,619,142

1991 (50 dates): 1,558,813

Decrease: 60,329

Average: 31,176

* HALL OF FAME: Former Angel Rod Carew is inducted along with pitchers Gaylord Perry and Ferguson Jenkins, second baseman Tony Lazzeri and owner Bill Veeck. C4