All the Angels stood at attention like kids and listened to Anaheim pitching coach Marcel Lachemann rip them apart, using swear word after swear word.

Lachemann went on a rage after the Angels went down meekly to the Texas Rangers again, this time 9-1, displaying little for the second straight night in the biggest three-game series of the season.

When Lachemann finished, it was so quiet in the clubhouse that you could hear an American League West title drop.

They walked around and said the things that were expected. Sure, they have fallen two games behind the first-place Rangers. If they win the final game of the series tonight, however, they will be just one game behind with four to play. If they play well in Oakland in the final four-game series against the Athletics, and if the Rangers find hard times in their final four-game set at Seattle, anything can happen.

It's not over, they all said. They have proved in the past that they can come back, they all said.

Lachemann, however, wasn't buying that. The media were ushered into the team's meeting room to meet with Manager Terry Collins and then pushed outside while Lachemann continued tearing down the troops.

There was no music playing, as it usually does whether the Angels win or lose.

"It was a pep talk," said reliever Pep Harris, the only player willing to talk about it. "It was Lachemann talking, but I had my head down. He had a lot to say."

"I don't want to talk about that (meeting)," said Todd Greene, who replaced Gregg Jefferies in left field in the first inning after Jefferies re-injured his right hamstring. "I said I'd talk about the game."

The Angels really couldn't say much about their dismal performance. But they didn't make excuses.

Chuck Finley, who toiled 6 1/3 innings, didn't excuse his walking seven -- one intentionally -- or his throwing error in the seventh that opened the door for the Rangers to score three runs for a 4-0 advantage.

Finley issued walks to Royce Clayton and Luis Alicea to open the seventh and then, on Roberto Kelly's sacrifice bunt, he slipped just before he fielded the ball. His bearings looked off when he threw the ball into right field for an error, allowing Clayton to score and moving Alicea and Kelly into scoring position.

"I totally messed the play up," Finley said. "I'll assume responsibility for that. I messed up, and it opened the floodgates."

Alicea scored on a sacrifice fly. After Finley intentionally walked Juan Gonzalez to load the bases, Mike Holtz came in. Kelly scored on a fielder's choice, and the Angels were reeling.

Only one of the four runs against Finley was earned, but as hard as he tried, Finley (11-9) couldn't stop himself from dropping to 0-4 this season against the Rangers, 7-16 lifetime.

"We've been down before like this," Finley said. "This is nothing knew for us. We still have five games left to play. Obviously we aren't in the position we'd like to be in. But I'm excited that we will bounce back from this."

With Finley in the dugout, spent after 121 pitches, an Angels bullpen that had been so impressive this season went into the tank.

Jarrod Washburn came on in the eighth inning and gave up a three-run homer to Alicea and a home run to Rusty Greer. Rich DeLucia came in and gave up a home run to Gonzalez.

That probably helped to set Lachemann off.

It gave Rick Helling a 9-0 lead to work with. Not that he needed it.

Helling went to the mound in search of his 20th victory of the season and got it by pitching eight innings, allowing only three hits, just one run, no walks and striking out five.

Helling (20-7) became just the third pitcher to register 20 victories this season and only the third 20-game winner in Rangers history.

And the Angels . . . they became a team trying to find the right words to say.

"We have played bad," Collins said. "We have not gotten it done. We've got five games left to play in the season. We win (today), we're one game out with four to play.

"We go to Oakland. Then we'll have to do some scoreboard watching. What we've got to stop doing is making critical mistakes and get some hits. Play some games like we have to play it."

Published 9/23/1998