Ryan’s Hope for No. 8 Shattered by Winfield : Angels: Single leading off eighth inning breaks up no-hitter. Ryan strikes out 14, including seven in a row, in 7-0 victory. Rangers move into first.

ARLINGTON, Tex. —  Tom House looked at Nolan Ryan’s fastball Sunday and liked its velocity. He looked at Ryan’s changeup and liked that, too.

But one quick glance at Ryan’s face told House all he needed to know about Ryan’s prospects against the Angels.

“I saw a look in his eye after the first inning,” said House, the Texas Rangers’ pitching coach. “It’s hard to describe. He goes into another zone. He’s with you physically, but mentally, he’s somewhere else.”

The Angels found him nearly untouchable. Less than five days after he drove himself to a hospital emergency room at 2 a.m. because of chest pains, Ryan pitched six perfect innings and seven hitless innings in Texas’ 7-0 rout of Chuck Finley and the Angels at Arlington Stadium.

Dave Winfield ended Ryan’s bid for his eighth no-hitter when he grounded a single up the middle to lead off the eighth, and Ryan (5-4) gave up a leadoff double to Gary Gaetti in the ninth. He was relieved by Kenny Rogers after 8 1/3 innings, leaving to a standing ovation from the 37,307 fans.

If the crowd was chagrined at seeing Ryan losing the no-hitter, Ryan was hardly ruffled. Being able to lift the Rangers into first place at the All-Star break, .005 ahead of the Twins, was his goal, and he accomplished that. The rest--setting a club record with seven consecutive strikeouts and striking out 14 overall to hit double figures for the fourth time this season and 211th of his career--he took with an almost supernatural calm.

“I wasn’t disappointed. I’m realistic enough to know the chances of (a no-hitter) happening often aren’t real good,” said Ryan, who no-hit the Blue Jays on May 1 but was 1-2 in eight starts since then.

“The caliber of hitter (Winfield) is, I expect him to hit pitches like that. I gave him a better pitch than I wanted to in that situation, and quality hitter that he is, he did what he was supposed to.

“The way I look at it, we wanted to finish the first half on a positive note. This was a real good home stand for us and we’re real happy with the way things have gone.”

That qualifies as gushing for Ryan. He leaves superlatives to others.

“I got really excited because when he has stuff like he did tonight, we have a chance to win and some pretty special things can happen,” said Ranger Manager Bobby Valentine, whose team leads the AL West at the break for the first time since 1983--when the Rangers were managed by current Angel Manager Doug Rader.

“He was pretty special tonight,” Valentine said. “He had three pitches, and all of them were working. In the third inning, his fastball gained a little zip and his changeup was there from the start. That makes it tough. He was incredible.”

Ryan, whose early-morning chest pains after his last start proved to be caused merely by a pulled muscle, was blase about his 110-pitch effort. It lowered opponents’ batting average against him to .158, the lowest in the league.

“I don’t think about no-hitters until I get that last out and it materializes,” said Ryan, who didn’t allow a ball out of the infield until Gaetti flied to shallow left for the first out of the sixth inning.

“I had good stuff and good command with three of my pitches, the fastball and the changeup, and I started throwing the curve more as the game went along.”

The Rangers’ six-run third inning against Finley (12-4) relieved Ryan of any worries about the score and stretched the Angels’ losing streak to four games, matching their longest skid of the season.

Texas scored all six runs in that inning with two out. Former Angel Gary Pettis started things with a triple down the right-field line, and he scored on Mike Stanley’s double to right-center. Rafael Palmeiro walked, and he and Stanley scored on Ruben Sierra’s double off the center-field fence.

Juan Gonzalez walked and scored when former Angel Brian Downing slammed a 2-and-2 pitch deep into the left-field stands. Finley, who was trying to become the first 13-game winner in the major leagues, was pulled after that inning. His earned-run average rose from 3.73 to 4.10, hardly what his parents and friends drove from Monroe, La., to Texas to see.

“Chuck was pitching well at first,” Downing said of Finley, who struck out three in the first two innings. “It looked like there would be six zeroes, hits, runs and errors, for a long time. We got one hit and then it was an avalanche.”

Seeing Ryan’s precise control, Downing sensed the potential for a no-hitter in the first few innings.

“Every time he goes out to pitch it’s like a playoff atmosphere,” Downing said, “but you could tell early in the game he had an outstanding fastball, a good curve and a good changeup. And he was getting a broad strike zone. You could see (the Angels) were getting frustrated with the calls, so you knew he had a pretty good shot.”

Eight of his 14 strikeouts were on called strikes by home plate umpire Durwood Merrill.

House said nine strikeouts were on breaking balls, and the rest on fastballs.

“He was surgical today,” House said. Ryan’s preparation for Sunday’s start was limited because of a sore Achilles’ tendon. But it seems the more Ryan aches, the better he pitches: He complained of back pains before his May 1 no-hitter at Arlington Stadium and was pitching Sunday for only the second time in 16 days because of tightness in his right shoulder.

“I think he checked into the hospital and got some kind of blood transfusion, that’s what did it,” Valentine joked.

Whatever he’s doing, it’s working.

“I guess I’ll have to try that Advil,” Winfield said, referring to the pain reliever Ryan endorses.

“The man was painting the strike zone. There was an economy of pitches there, to strike out that many people on 110 pitches,” Winfield added. “Unfortunately, we got swept down here, but certainly we didn’t want to go into the break after a perfect game or a no-hitter against us.”

Despite their losing streak, the Angels’ 44-37 record and two-game deficit in the AL West after 81 games is far better than their 39-42 record and 11 1/2-game deficit of a year ago. Best of all, they won’t have to face Ryan again for a while.

“The man’s a legend,” Dave Parker said.