Perfect Harmony : After a Season of Mainly Sour Notes, Angels’ Langston Is in Virtuoso Form

He lives the dream of everyone who has ever thrown a baseball, but Mark Langston has dreams, too.

In his, the Angel left-hander is on a stage, playing a guitar and singing before an adoring crowd. And although he will probably never play the Hollywood Bowl, the Angel left-hander realized his fantasy on a small scale last year.

As a friend of singer Bruce Hornsby, a gifted songwriter and pianist, Langston was invited to join a chorus that provided background finger-snapping for a track on Hornsby’s last album. In return, Langston has arranged for Hornsby to work out with the Angels when Hornsby’s concert schedule meshes with the Angels’ schedule.

“To me, that’s an escape to a different atmosphere,” Langston said of his musical reveries. “I’ve always looked at the idea of whether I’d rather be a musician or an athlete. I can always be a bootleg musician, but (a musician) can’t always be an athlete. (Hornsby) was a pretty good basketball player, but if you’re a musician, you’re not going to be an athlete at this level.

“Being a musician is something I’d love to do, but this is the gift I think God has given me.”

Langston’s gift has produced a 12-3 record and a berth on the American League All-Star team. Last season, when he went 10-17 with a 4.40 earned-run average, Langston sought solace in his faith, his family, his music and his teammates. This season, he is repaying the Angels’ five-year, $16-million investment.

“Vindication is too strong a word,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said of Langston’s All-Star season. “This is a reward for doing the job he himself knew all along he could do. Reaffirmation , that’s a good word.

“Being able to wade through (last season) the way he did and handle it in a manly fashion was a fantastic achievement. I don’t know how it could have been handled in a more professional manner. . . . To me, Mark Langston was an All-Star last year, not necessarily from a performance standpoint, but from a character standpoint.”

After the April 11 no-hitter that he and Mike Witt combined to pitch against the Seattle Mariners, Langston pitched well in May and into June, giving up only six earned runs in one four-game stretch--but getting three losses and one no-decision. The Angels scored a total of 18 runs by the time of his departure in his 17 losses, but he earned his share of blame. Opponents hit .259 against him, .278 with runners on base. He gave up 61 runs with two out, more than half of his season total of 120.

By midsummer, his game had disintegrated. He averaged more than a hit an inning and was 1-10 between June 10 and Aug. 15. In three of those starts, he was routed after 2 2/3 innings, and his earned-run average crested at 4.79. Only by winning five of his last seven decisions did he reach double figures in victories.

“I just didn’t pitch the way I was supposed to, and this is a totally different situation,” Langston said. “Coming out of spring training this year, you knew this was going to be a totally different team. We knew we had the personnel, and guys were swinging the bat well. Last year, we had a good team, but we just didn’t play up to our potential. We came out of spring training with nothing, and I think the lockout hurt us. We were flat coming out of spring training, and Oakland got out fast.

“You come into the locker room now expecting to win every night. Every night, we send out a quality guy to the mound. Offensively and defensively, we’re

doing the things we need to do, and our bullpen is as good as anybody’s.

“Last year, I went out hoping to win, and that’s a different approach. I went out and said, ‘I’m going to win,’ but I pitched defensively. This year, I told myself to pitch aggressively. I finished up that way last year, after we talked about some things on that note, and it’s helped.”

Talking about a new approach and using it are vastly different.

“The credit goes to the kid,” Angel pitching coach Marcel Lachemann said. “It’s easy to suggest things, but he’s the one who had to do it. That’s not so easy.

“It wasn’t so much frustration (last season) at not seeing his talent pay off, as how hard he worked at it. A lot of people have ability and don’t get it done. To see the effort he put into it and not get it done was frustrating.”

Langston and Lachemann simplified the left-hander’s delivery this season, but changing the pattern and strategy of his pitching provided the catalyst in his breakthrough.

“Last year, he didn’t throw quite as many changeups, and we didn’t pitch inside as much as we have this year,” catcher Lance Parrish said. “We might have overlooked that last year.

“When he did pitch well prior to last year, he was pitching inside, and we had to get back to that. Also last year, he was a four-pitch pitcher, and this year, we’re going with three pitches. We eliminated the curveball and go with the slider. I think it gives him a little better command of one pitch, instead of trying to figure out two (the slider and the curveball) . . .

“This year, it’s like catching a pitcher who has a little better idea of what he’s doing and seems to show a little more confidence in himself. He seems in a lot more control of what he’s doing, compared with periods he went through last year. He’s got a pretty good game plan every time he goes out there.”

Said Langston: “My whole career, I pitched inside and was aggressive inside, but for some reason last season, I wasn’t doing that a lot of times. I was a defensive pitcher and I worked spots. When I came inside, it was for a strike and not aggressively.

“I knew I was a better pitcher than I was last year and I had to do some different things. I didn’t feel I had to prove anything. That’s more of a media issue. I put my faith in God and I never looked back.”

He often relied on his teammates for comfort last season. Now, he knows he can rely on them for offensive and defensive support.

“It took time to fit in. For me, the lockout hurt because I didn’t get that adjustment period where everybody got to know me,” Langston said. “These guys picked me up last year. Having Kirk McCaskill and Chuck Finley and Jim Abbott pick me up like they did was great. I was down a lot of times, and they helped me feel a whole lot better.

“This team has scored me a million runs this season, and that’s a huge lift, too. They’ve picked me up more than I’ve picked them up. Everybody’s contributing.”

Langston has won seven games after Angel losses, a distinct contrast to a year ago when he extended losing streaks more often than he ended them.

“That means nothing to me,” Langston said of the “stopper” label. “Look at some of the games Kirk has lost: He’s lost some tough games and pitched better than I did the next night. There’s no doubt things are happening for me, but that’s the game of baseball. A lot of times you’ve got to make your breaks. This year, the guys are making breaks for me. We’ve had a lot of team wins.”