`PRIZE' FOR ANGELS LIKELY OUT OF REACH.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

ANAHEIM - They know why you're here. That's a wreath carried, not some feel-good bouquet. It's a solemn look, if almost from a father still proud from the failed effort.

The Angels have been assigned their roles, told exactly their place, yet keep squirming into some crack of resistance.

This is the Marc Antony routine, where we come more to bury the Angels than to praise them.

And the great temptation is to tip the cap, admire a season where they performed better than most imagined, and then resign them to their fate.

``Then you're talking to the wrong guy,'' said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, and you just knew he would say that.

Reality can offer a rude awakening, and the reality is the Angels left town Thursday six games back of Seattle in the American League West and 5 1/2 behind Cleveland for the wild-card spot. They have but 16 games to play.

Time is not an ally here, only a cold reminder of flaws identified long ago that still haunt. The Angels do not return to Anaheim again until the final three games of the year against Seattle. That follows four games at second-place Oakland.

``I think there's still time for us to get there,'' Scioscia said. ``We have some head-to-head games down the stretch that are going to help. But to get to where those games are really going to be meaningful, it may take a club that's not in contention against a club in contention helping us.''

It's come to that, but that the Angels could even get there seems fairly stunning.

They remain a team without a rotation. They have tried starting 13 different pitchers this season, none of whom have started at least 25 games. None of whom has won even eight games.

Old, broken-down guys. Eager kids with their first driver's license. Guys discarded at midseason by others from unimpressive rotations. Guys one step ahead of the scalpel. Calling it a parade of mediocrity would be oh-so generous.

Of course, Angels and starting pitching is a problem older than Tim Belcher. It's a traditional embarrassment. Certainly, it has the albatross over many a failed season long before Bill Stoneman showed up as the new general manager in the offseason.

Stoneman let Chuck Finley walk but appeared to recognize the problem in the spring when the traded outfielder Jim Edmonds for right-hander Kent Bottenfield. Then apparently getting too carried away with the success of his young starters, rather incredibly, he traded Bottenfield to the Phillies July 30 for veteran outfielder Ron Gant.

That netted Gant (batting .213 and long-since relegated to the Angels bench) for Edmonds (.302, with 39 homers and 99 RBI), who's five years younger. Not Stoneman's finest hour.

Yet the Angels persisted in hanging in the race, which is both testament to their resolve and the woeful state of the AL West.

``I try to say this in a nice way, but I could care less what anybody thinks,'' Angels outfielder Darin Erstad said. ``Everybody has their opinion, but as a group we're confident. We believe in ourselves, and that's to a man - every single guy. No matter what the score is, we feel like we can win the baseball game. We've had that attitude all year.''

Scioscia deflects praise that he had gotten more from a team with a ravaged and green rotation than could have been expected.

``I don't think this team has overachieved,'' Scioscia said. ``I think this team is very talented. We've shown that when we get the pitching to match this offense, that we can go against anybody and win.''

And if their success seems unexpected, they are still only two games away from being a .500 club. A .500 team in the spring wouldn't have sounded like such a stretch.

``The perception might be out there that we had a good year but aren't going to get it done,'' Scioscia said. ``That's not our feeling in the clubhouse. We're not going to be satisfied with any season unless you finish on top. That's still our goal. We have our eye on the prize.''

It should be looking pretty distant by now. The eulogy has been polished. Time to tip the cap, and count the days.