[0] FINLEY FINDS MISSING FORM AS ANGELS GET SHUTOUT : ANGELS 1, DETROIT 0.

Byline: Dave Desmond Daily News Staff Writer

Contrary to any rumors that may be circulating, no one sneaked into Anaheim Stadium on Monday and replaced the supply of the Major Leagues' 1996 Top-Flite baseballs with wet, rolled up socks.

It only seemed that way in the Angels' 1-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

True, the 16,336 who witnessed the first of two matchups between division cellar-dwellers probably didn't gather expecting to see the '27 Yankees.

But 1-0?

In a game between the Angels (12th in the AL with a 5.41 team ERA) and Detroit (14th and last, 6.82), which is on its way to shattering a 66-year-old Phillies record for highest team ERA?

``It's a strange game,'' said Angels starter Chuck Finley, a recent All-Star selection but also winless in his five previous starts.

``What a team does in the past doesn't matter much.''

Finley (10-8) pitched masterfully through 7-2/3 innings, allowing six hits and striking out seven, including No. 1,500 in his career.

He finished with 1,503, second only to Nolan Ryan (2,416) on the club's all-time list.

Reliever Troy Percival pitched the final 1-1/3 innings, yielding a two-out warning-track shot to Travis Fryman with two on in the eighth and a fly out to the center-field wall by Cecil Fielder in the ninth, to record his 26th save.

Jim Edmonds hauled in two of Fielder's drives at the wall, but no one could track Edmonds' blast in the third inning.

His 15th home run was his second since returning from the disabled list Friday.

``He's an All-Star player,'' Angels manager Marcel Lachemann said of Edmonds, who has missed 46 games with various injuries this season. ``He makes a difference.''

He made all the difference on a night when the Angels (48-52) managed only one hit in 10 at-bats with runners on base.

For its part, Detroit (30-70) hit safely only once in 12 at-bats in such situations.

The Tigers' Omar Olivares (4-7) allowed only four hits, two walks and a hit batter while striking out nine to equal a career-high set in 1991 while with the St. Louis Cardinals. Olivares, who went all the way, has lasted into the eighth inning six times this season, equaling the total by the rest of Detroit's staff.

The Angels, who stranded 41 runners in a four-game weekend series with Seattle, loaded the bases against Olivares with one out in the first but got nothing.

The next inning, Garret Anderson led off with a walk and was balked to second. Nothing.

They put two more runners on with two out in the sixth. Zip.

Against just about anyone else, missed opportunities like those could have been disastrous. But this was the Tigers (30-70), last in the league in batting, pitching and defense.