Hapless Angels Bottom Out as Winless Trip Winds Up : Baseball: Anaheim left with worst record in majors after 6-5 loss to Cleveland, its ninth consecutive defeat.

CLEVELAND —  It’s an incredibly helpless feeling when you’re struggling like the Angels and you’re playing the Cleveland Indians, who can field an all-star at every position, who have a potent lineup that can thrash and bash with the best of them, and who make Gold Glove-caliber defensive plays seem routine.

“It’s like they’re the Harlem Globetrotters out there,” Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina said, “and we’re the Washington Generals.”

The outcome Thursday night seemed about as inevitable as one of those made-for-television basketball games/comedy routines for eight innings.

Then Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon led an Angel uprising in the top of the ninth, each smacking a two-run home run before Indian left fielder David Justice leaped at the wall to catch Troy Glaus’ vicious liner and preserve the Indians’ 6-5 victory before 43,369 at Jacobs Field.

Cleveland completed a four-game sweep of the Angels, sending them to their ninth consecutive loss and their first winless trip of seven games or more since a 0-10 ride through New York, Boston and Detroit in 1969.

The Angels (51-82) return home after a 0-7 swing through Boston and Cleveland to play four games against the defending World Series-champion New York Yankees knowing they now have the worst record in the major leagues.

“You didn’t even need to tell me that,” said Salmon, who had an RBI triple in the fifth. “The way we’ve played, I feel like we have the worst record. We’ve had those feelings for two months. Everyone says we need to try to find something to build on. Does that mean we have to win 20 of our last 30 games? No.

“Let’s get the chemistry right, start swinging the bats well, build on leads . . . even if we lost every game, if we improved morale in the clubhouse that would go a lot further than winning. We need to get our heads together and come together as a team this last month. Wins would help, but we need to get this family back together.”

The first positive step might be getting the family out of Cleveland. Indian second baseman Roberto Alomar, who has helped beat the Angels every way imaginable this series--with spectacular defensive plays, speed, hitting and bunting ability--added power to the mix Thursday, homering in the fourth inning to become the first Indian in the franchise’s 99-year history to have 100 runs, 100 RBIs, 20 homers and 30 stolen bases in one season.

It was the third homer Alomar has hit this season off Angel knuckleballer Steve Sparks. Richie Sexson also hit his third home run in as many games, his towering three-run shot off Sparks capping a five-run fifth, the third time this series Cleveland has scored five runs or more in an inning.

“Alomar hurt us pretty bad,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “And Sexson killed us.”

Sparks fared well until the fifth, when he gave up singles to Einar Diaz and Dave Roberts, Omar Vizquel’s sacrifice fly, Manny Ramirez’s RBI double, a walk to Jim Thome and Sexson’s homer.

After the game, Collins told Sparks he will move to the bullpen to make room in the rotation for Brian Cooper, a promising triple-A right-hander who will be called up next week.

“I understand their thought process,” Sparks said. “I’m not bitter or disappointed in anyone but myself because I didn’t pitch better. We’ve played terribly, they’ve got to look at the young guys.”

Cleveland starter Charles Nagy, who got out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the first and a first-and-third, no-out jam in the second, gave up one run on eight hits in seven innings to gain the victory, improving to 15-9.

Apart from the ninth, the other bright spot for the Angels was their bullpen, which was battered for 13 runs in the series.

Lou Pote threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings Thursday night, and Ken Hill finally made it to the eighth inning--of course, he entered in the eighth, making his first relief appearance since Oct. 1, 1995, and pitching a hitless inning.

Home runs by Anderson off reliever Steve Reed and Salmon off closer Mike Jackson then made the game very interesting in the ninth.

“This team has not laid down,” Collins said, “it has not quit.”