Angels Going in Reverse : Baseball: A 5-0 loss to Blue Jays drops them into fifth place, 13 games back.

The Angels should not look back, because something certainly is gaining on them--the tail-end of the American League West standings.

Dante Bichette would have done better not to have looked down, as he did on Greg Myers’ fly ball to deep center, because he might have saved two runs instead of helping Myers to a triple.

And the Angels do not care to look beyond the left-field fence, where Fred McGriff hit two pitches Thursday night in the Toronto Blue Jays’ 5-0 victory over the Angels in front of 27,365 at Anaheim Stadium.

No, what the Angels are looking for are answers. They have won four of their last 15 games and have only three victories in July.

And with Thursday’s loss, they fell into fifth place in the American League West for the first time since May 25.

The Angels are 13 games behind the Oakland Athletics, in a virtual tie with the Minnesota Twins.

“The team right now is a little down; there’s not a lot of life in us,” said Bichette, who said he was playing shallow on Myers’ triple after an Angel coach moved him in on a two-strike count. When Myers hit the ball well, Bichette had a hard run to get close to it before looking down and losing it.

“It was a tough break,” Bichette said. “Just unlucky.”

The Blue Jays, in contrast to the Angels, moved into a virtual tie for first place with the Boston Red Sox in the American League East, trailing the Red Sox by .003 percentage points. The Red Sox and Kansas City Royals were rained out in Boston.

Toronto motored through the game with ease behind the pitching of left-hander David Wells (7-2), a reliever-turned-starter who is 6-1 since a start against the Angels May 24 broke a string of 126 appearances out of the bullpen.

Wells shut out the Angels through eight innings on five hits, earning his first decision against the Angels in four appearances this season. Tom Henke pitched the ninth.

Wells thwarted the Angels, allowing only two hits through five innings. Bill Schroeder managed a single in the third, Bichette singled in the fifth. Nothing came of either of them.

The Angels didn’t get a runner as far as second base until the sixth inning, when they loaded the bases with two out, only to see Dave Winfield hit a high fly to left, stranding three runners.

“You really want to encapsulate that ballgame, look at the base hit Myers got and the base hit Dave Winfield almost got,” Manager Doug Rader said. “That’s a seven-run swing. Myers hit a very good fastball. Winfield barely missed a breaking ball for a grand slam. That’s just not a whole lot of difference in the ballgame.”

Donnie Hill led off the Angel sixth with a single, and Brian Downing moved him to second with a one-out single. Chili Davis came up with two out and the runners still at first and second. He hit a ball sharply to third, where Kelly Gruber stopped it behind the bag but could not beat Hill to the base, loading the bases.

Winfield’s at-bat brought the crowd to life, but it ended the way every other Angel inning did--without a run. Winfield, hitless in his past two games and batting .158 with men in scoring position, lifted a high fly ball to left, stranding the three runners.

Angel starter Kirk McCaskill (6-6) lost for the third consecutive start, lasting only 3 2/3 innings and giving up four runs on five hits.

“There’s not much positive to say,” said McCaskill, who gave up three runs in the fourth.

Toronto struck in the second inning, when McGriff hit the first of his two homers.

McGriff’s shot was the first homer McCaskill has given up in Anaheim Stadium this year. His other three were on the road--one to McGriff in Toronto last week.

For McGriff, it was the second two-homer game of his season, and the 10th of his four-year career.

The homers were the 19th and 20th of his season, the second one a solo shot to left off Mike Fetters in the sixth inning.

McCaskill’s real trouble didn’t start until the fourth inning, an inning he would not finish.

He opened by hitting Gruber on the forearm with an 0-and-2 pitch, Gruber pausing to make a menacing shout to the mound.

Gruber stole second, and with one out, McCaskill walked McGriff.

With two out, McCaskill got two quick strikes on Myers, but Myers hung in until hitting his triple that eluded Bichette.

“I couldn’t put him away,” McCaskill said.

Toronto took a 4-0 lead when Myers scored on Manny Lee’s bloop single to left. Mookie Wilson followed with another single and McCaskill was done.

He might have been out of the inning had Bichette been able to catch Myers’ ball to center. And Winfield might have had a grand slam. As it was the Angels, trying with all their might, slipped a bit farther behind.

Angel Notes

Reliever Greg Minton, still trying to recover from elbow surgery, has been placed on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to July 9 with a strained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, the Angels announced after the game. Pitcher Cliff Young who has a 7-4 record and a 2.42 earned-run average with triple-A Edmonton will replace him. . . . “I’ve never had a total season be a complete waste,” Minton said. “Not many 39-year-old pitchers come back from surgery.”

Doug Rader said he hopes Young will fill a role similar to the one Bob McClure had last year, as a left-handed set-up man. . . . Wally Joyner did not start, suffering from tendinitis in his right knee that was aggravated by playing on artificial turf in Toronto and Seattle. Bill Schroeder replaced him at first base.