Abbott Pitches Like Costello in Angel Loss

BALTIMORE â€”  Second baseman Rex Hudler hit another home run and center fielder Jim Edmonds denied another potential homer with a great catch, but those weren’t the only recent Angel trends sustained in Camden Yards on Wednesday night.

Pitcher Jim Abbott also followed a familiar course. The worst start of Abbott’s eight-year career got even worse when the left-hander was bombed in the Angels’ 10-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles before 45,817.

So ended a 2-6 swing through Boston, New York and Baltimore, but remarkably the Angels, who trail first-place Texas by 7 1/2 games, are only 1 1/2 games deeper in the American League West than when they headed east last week.

“Obviously, it’s good Texas is not on a tear and we’re not 15 games back,� Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “But you don’t live on other people’s failures. You have to right your own ship.�

Lachemann could start by throwing Abbott a life preserver. He lasted 4 2/3 innings Wednesday, giving up seven earned runs on nine hits, including successive homers by Roberto Alomar and Rafael Palmeiro in the third.

As in so many of his previous games, Abbott fell victim to the big inning. Baltimore scored four runs in the third inning to take a 5-1 lead. He fell to 1-7 with a 6.39 earned-run average, acceptable for a Detroit Tiger, but not for a guy with a lifetime ERA of 3.77 to start the season.

Abbott, who is tied with three others for the major league lead in losses, has given up five or more earned runs in seven of his 10 starts and has hardly looked like a $2.2-million pitcher.

“I know it looks like a complete disaster, but I really feel I’m throwing the ball better this year than I was last year,� Abbott said. “I just don’t have command of my pitches. I’m falling behind hitters, trying to be too fine and make perfect pitches, and against a big-swinging team in this park, that can be deadly.�

Alomar led Baltimore’s barrage with four hits and three runs batted in to raise his league-leading average to .400. He is batting .511 since moving to the third spot in the order two weeks ago, and his only out Wednesday came when Edmonds made a leaping grab of his fifth-inning drive over the center-field wall.

The Orioles scored three more runs in the fifth inning to take an 8-1 lead, and Abbott got no help from reliever Jeff Schmidt, who gave up two singles and two walks after replacing the starter.

Abbott doesn’t have an overpowering fastball, so he relies on breaking pitches and pinpoint control. But when he’s not hitting corners and has to come into the heart of the plate, he is hit hard.

“My slider doesn’t have a bite to it and my curve has been a little too up,� Abbott said. “That’s the difference between getting a ground ball and a line drive. I’m also not aggressive enough. I’m a little too tentative.�

The Angels almost made a game of it with a four-run seventh inning, a rally off Oriole starter Jimmy Haynes that included Gary DiSarcina’s two-run double and Hudler’s two-run homer, the fourth consecutive game in which he has homered.

But Roger McDowell held the Angels scoreless over the final 2 1/3 innings for his second save.

“It just takes its toll on you after awhile,� Angel first baseman J.T. Snow said of the proliferation of large, early game deficits. “It’s like last year, when we were always behind [in August and September]. It’s tough to battle back all the time. We have to put up runs early and keep adding a few here and there.�

What a strange four-day period for the Angels, who whipped New York, 10-1, Sunday; lost to Baltimore, 13-1, Monday; played one of their best overall games of the season in Tuesday’s 5-2 win over the Orioles and were hammered Wednesday night.

“We’re good one night,� DiSarcina said, “and the next night we look like. . . .�

The biggest deficit they have overcome this season is four runs.

“We’ve had days where we feel sorry for ourselves as a whole,� DiSarcina said. “If we’re down, 5-0, we need to say, ‘So what,’ and keep trying to chip away and hope our pitchers hold them. We just can’t give up.�