Angels Can’t Keep Pace With Only Five Homers : Baseball: The Orioles hit six and win, 14-7, as the teams tie the major league record of 11 home runs.

BALTIMORE —  You get the feeling that if the Angels ever won a $10-million lottery, they would lose the ticket.

If they won a car at the church raffle, they would run into a tree pulling out of the parking lot.

These are the Angels, the Peanuts Gang of major league baseball.

Friday night, the Angels hit five home runs against All-Star pitcher Mike Mussina, scored more runs in the first five innings than in their last four games combined and . . . ready for the punch line?

They lost, 14-7, to the Baltimore Orioles before 47,342 delirious fans at Camden Yards.

While the Angels fell only one homer shy of their franchise record, they gave up six homers to the Orioles, tying a major league record of 11 homers hit by two teams in one game. It was previously done seven times, the last on Sept. 14, 1987, when the Toronto Blue Jays hit 10 homers to the Orioles’ one.

“I saw it, I was part of it, but I still can’t believe what happened,” said Angel left fielder Jim Edmonds, who hit the last Angel homer in the fifth. “It was like playing in the Texas League without the wind.”

Said Angel reliever Russ Springer, who yielded one of the homers: “I’ve been involved in some weird games, but not one like that.

“Every time you turned around, a ball was going out of the ballpark.”

There were home runs by nine players against four pitchers, in every inning until the eighth. They were hit by every position player except third base and second base in every direction but straightaway center and traveled a total of 4,085 feet.

“It’s time to break out another box of Titleists and go out there again tomorrow,” said Mussina, who won his 12th game despite yielding five homers, 10 hits and seven earned runs in five innings. It was the most homers given up by an Oriole since Jim Palmer on June 22, 1977.

“This was liking dunking in a basketball game,” Mussina said. “There were 11 homers. Sometimes, there aren’t even 11 dunks in a game.

“I’m just glad I got out of there without getting hurt.”

But no one is incurring more abuse these days than the Angels, who suffered the ultimate embarrassment.

They fell to last in the pitiful American League West, dropping to a season-low 14 games under .500 at 33-47. Instead of showing even the slightest improvement, the Angels have lost 21 of their last 31 games. They now have the second-worst record in major league baseball, managing to stay ahead of only the San Diego Padres.

“What’s frustrating is that we make movements forward,” Angel pitcher Chuck Finley said, “and fall back in the same hole. You’d think after a while our eyes will open up and we’d move on, but it’s like we’re taking one step forward and two steps back.

“It’s (management’s) choice if they’re going to correct it, or else we’re all going to suffer.”

Every time the Angels find a way to plug one problem, a leak pops up elsewhere. They began the game having failed to score in their last 22 innings, scoring two or fewer runs in six of their last 10 games.

Right fielder Tim Salmon ended the streak with a two-out homer in the first inning. Chad Curtis hit a solo homer in the second inning. Chili Davis hit a homer in the fourth. Salmon and Edmonds hit homers in the fifth.

But there was one little problem.

Angel starter Joe Magrane couldn’t stop the Orioles, who have now homered in a club-record 17 consecutive games. He gave up a run-scoring single to Leo Gomez in the first, a run-scoring groundout to Brady Anderson and a three-run homer to Rafael Palmeiro in the second and left after giving up solo homers to Gomez and Jeffrey Hammonds in the third.

“I changed the whole complexion of the game,” said Magrane, who yielded six hits and seven runs--four earned--in 2 1/3 innings.

Still, after trailing by 7-3 after two innings, the Angels managed to pull to 8-7 after five innings. The trouble was that the Orioles now had gotten into the Angel bullpen. Curtis took a homer away from Chris Hoiles in the fifth inning, but Springer gave up three runs in the sixth, including Cal Rikpen’s 300th homer as a shortstop.

Craig Lefferts took his turn in the seventh, and promptly gave up back-to-back homers to Hoiles and Hammonds that tied the record. And Joe Grahe nearly gave up the record-setting homer in the eighth to Palmeiro, but wound up giving up only one run created by Chris Sabo’s leadoff triple.

“It was like something you see on ESPN,” Lefferts said. “It’s not something you want to be part of, and it’s certainly not a record to be proud about.”

Instead, it was a record that left Manager Marcel Lachemann fuming.

“Pretty poorly pitched,” he said, “in fact, very poorly pitched. When you get 3-and-0, 2-and-0 counts, you’re going to get whacked. It’s that simple.

“When you get seven runs off Mussina, and don’t win. . . . “

Lachemann’s voice trailed off and he lowered his head, grimacing as he scoured the statistical sheet.

His face said it all.

Home Run Derby

The Baltimore Orioles and Angels, led by two home runs by Tim Salmon (right), tied a major league record by combining for 11 home runs Friday night. A look at the teams to accomplish the feat:

HOME RUNS: DATE

Baltimore Orioles 6, Angels 5: July 1, 1994

Toronto Blue Jays 10, Baltimore Orioles 1: Sept. 14, 1987

Chicago Cubs 6, Philadelphia Phillies 5 (10): May 17, 1979

Chicago Cubs 6, Cincinnati Reds 5 (13): July 28, 1977

Boston Red Sox 6, Milwaukee Brewers 5: May 22, 1977

Chicago Cubs 7, New York Mets 4: June 11, 1967

Pittsburgh Pirates 6, Cincinnati Reds 5 (13): Aug. 12, 1966

New York Yankees 6, Detroit Tigers 5: June 23, 1950