Angels Beat Slumping Rangers, 4-3 : Baseball: Texas suffers 12th loss in 15 games as Salmon hits his 16th home run in the eighth inning.

A home run in the eighth inning from a right fielder unsure of his standing as a power hitter, a strong start from a pitcher who needed extra rest this week and an unaccustomed uneventful performance by a beleaguered bullpen.

The Angels fashioned all that into a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Texas Rangers at Anaheim Stadium on Sunday.

A crowd of 20,992 saw the continued unraveling of the Rangers, who became the worst first-place team in major league history. Until Texas fell to 33-40 Sunday, no team had ever been seven games below the .500 mark and still led a division.

“We’re scuffling,� Texas Manager Kevin Kennedy said. “We’re scuffling as a group.�

Tim Salmon’s eighth-inning home run, his 16th overall and 12th with the bases empty, provided the winning margin.

“My wife keeps telling me there’s no reason to get upset,� said Salmon, disappointed with this major league-leading total of 82 strikeouts.

“She keeps telling me I’m ahead of where I was last year at this point (in home runs and runs batted in).�

Mark Langston, pitching with extra rest after Thursday’s off day, went seven solid innings, winning for the third time in four starts.

“That was the best performance I’ve seen out of Langston,� Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “Overall, he made very good pitches and kept us in the ballgame. He threw 105 pitches in this (93-degree) heat and that was enough.�

Langston gave up seven hits and two earned runs with a season-high nine strikeouts and three walks in seven innings. The score was 3-3 by then. Mark Leiter (4-4) pitched a 1-2-3 eighth for the victory and Joe Grahe picked up his 12th save.

“He’s got the pitches to be a good reliever,� Lachemann said of Leiter. “He’s pitching well for us.�

With Texas stumbling to its 12th loss in 15 games, the Angels are only 1 1/2 games out of first place.

With 13 games until the All-Star break, the Angels (33-43) are closer to first than they were at this point last season. A year ago, they were 37-39 and in fourth place, two games out of first.

By all rights, Texas should be burying the field. The Ranger pitching staff figured to have troubles, but it was the team’s hitters who failed against the Angels.

First baseman Will Clark, batting .349, was a particularly easy out for Angel pitching in the three-game series. He managed only a double Friday and a homer on Saturday. After going hitless in four at-bats Sunday, he is mired in a two-for-25 slump that has cost his average 28 points.

“We miss Will,� Kennedy said. “When Will goes in a slump--what is he, two for 25?--that hurts.�

Jose Canseco, Juan Gonzalez and Dean Palmer, the Rangers’ other big threats, were a combined one for nine Sunday.

Texas had a 2-0 lead, but for the second consecutive game couldn’t hold it and couldn’t rally once it lost it.

Run-scoring singles in the fourth inning by Jim Edmonds, Chad Curtis and Greg Myers gave the Angels a 3-2 lead. Palmer’s solo homer in the sixth then pulled Texas even.

But Salmon homered leading off the eighth and Leiter and Grahe kept the Rangers quiet to preserve the victory.

Later, Salmon sounded as if he was asking for perfection each time he comes to bat.

“You expect success every time,� he said. “You get frustrated in a situation when you have a chance to drive in a run and you don’t.

“I mean, match me up with Jose (Canseco), and there’s a huge difference. Or (Joe) Carter. Or (Ken) Griffey. (You can’t) try to put me into that category. Look around at all the good hitters.�