Angels Are Running Out of Time, 7-5

An hour before the Angels were to play the Detroit Tigers Saturday afternoon, Angel Manager Terry Collins was wondering if his team was going to show up. Four hours and 8 1/2 innings later, Collins was wondering the same thing.

The bus carrying the Angels trudged through a freeway traffic jam to deliver them to Tiger Stadium about 55 minutes before the start, but the Angels continued to look like impostors compared to the team that tore up the American League in July.

This time it was an error and defensive indecision by third baseman Dave Hollins, a few bad pitches by Allen Watson and two clutch Tiger hits that doomed the Angels in a 7-5 loss before a crowd of 16,294.

The Angels spiraled to their fifth consecutive defeat, matching their season-worst skid, and their 15th loss in their last 21 games. They are now five games behind the division-leading Mariners.

“You give them a chance to kick back a bit [by canceling batting practice] and all of a sudden they’re rushing around, trying to get ready to play,” Collins said.

“But we’re searching if we use that as an excuse. It’s like saying the pillows in the hotel are not fluffy enough. It’s grind-it-out time. We’ve got to quit talking about it and get it done.”

This September is beginning to look a lot like last September for Collins, whose Houston Astros lost 17 of their last 25 and went from a 2 1/2-game lead in the National League Central to six games back of the St. Louis Cardinals in the final month.

It’s also looking like many dreary Septembers past for the Angels, who are 91-155 in September since 1986 and have had only one winning September in that span.

“There’s no sense in getting carried away, having closed-door meetings every day,” said Collins, who was criticized for being too stern and heavy-handed during the Astros’ collapse last summer. “We’ve got 20 games left, we have to go out and play and not be afraid to make mistakes.”

Mistakes, though, are what killed the Angels on Saturday. Hollins couldn’t glove Bubba Trammell’s second-inning grounder, committing his 26th error of the season, and Juan Encarnacion followed with a homer into the upper deck in left field for a 3-1 lead.

In the fourth, Watson hit Encarnacion with a pitch and walked No. 9 batter Deivi Cruz to put two on with two out, and with the runners attempting a double steal, Brian Hunter grounded to third.

Hollins fielded the ball cleanly and took two steps toward Encarnacion, but when he realized he couldn’t tag him, he threw to first.

Had it been almost any other runner, Hollins would have gotten away with his mistake, but Hunter is a speedster who leads the league with 66 stolen bases, and he beat the throw to load the bases.

Two pitches later, Bobby Higginson smashed a fastball that “had nothing on it,” according to Watson, for a grand slam off the facing of the third deck in right field for a 7-1 lead, the league-leading 32nd home run Watson has given up this season.

“We can’t be giving up four outs in an inning,” said shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who broke out of a one for 25 slump with four hits. “We’ve got to tighten the screws defensively and shut teams down. The effort is there, no doubt about it. You can’t get on anyone for that.”

There were some encouraging offensive signs for the Angels, who scored once in the third on Jim Edmonds’ homer off Brian Moehler, three times in the fifth on Tony Phillips’ RBI double and sacrifice flies by Darin Erstad and Tim Salmon, and once in the eighth on Salmon’s 29th homer.

But Phillips struck out and Erstad popped out with runners on second and third in the third, and the Angels couldn’t score after putting two on with one out in the fourth.

“We just need to get some big two-out hits,” Collins said. “That will break us loose.”