ANGELS CONTINUE FREE FALL CLEVELAND SWEEPS DOUBLEHEADER CLEVELAND 3-3, ANGELS 2-2.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

CLEVELAND - They are playing some ghastly baseball. The Angels admit that much.

They appear woefully overmatched, as well, an observation the Angels refuse to agree with.

Saturday, after the Angels lost both games of a doubleheader to the Cleveland Indians, both 3-2, it seemed painfully obvious they are getting spring-training-quality play out of a spring-training-quality lineup.

Not so, manager Mike Scioscia said.

``I don't think that's fair,'' he said after the Angels lost for the 19th time in 24 games since the All-Star break and ensured they would extend to eight the number of series they played without winning. ``Guys are better than they're playing right now.''

But could the Angels reasonably expect more than two runs out of the lineup they employed in the second game of the day-night doubleheader?

Eric Owens, now hitting .205, was the leadoff hitter and center fielder, a position usually manned by Darin Erstad, who might be out for the year. Robb Quinlan (41 career at-bats) hit second. Jeff DaVanon, in slides of 3 for 27 and 12 for 76, batted sixth.

Instead of power-hitting Troy Glaus, out with a shoulder injury, the Angels started good-fielding, unproven-hitting Alfredo Amezaga at third base in both games. Amezaga got his first hit of the year in the opener but committed an embarrassing fielding gaffe in the second game and is 1 for 25 (.040) since his recall July 25.

And though Jose Molina closely resembles his brother Bengie on the defensive end, the gulf between their offensive production (.205 for Jose, .282 for Bengie, out with a sore thumb) is massive.

So after scoring just two runs in the 13-inning opener and going hitless in the last four innings of the nightcap, it's becoming painfully obvious the Angels can't survive on Garret Anderson, Tim Salmon, Scott Spiezio and Adam Kennedy alone.

The Angels' limp offensive performance wasted solid pitching performances from Kevin Gregg, who made his major-league debut in the first game and pitched six innings, giving up one run, and Scot Shields, who pitched seven innings and gave up three runs in the nightcap.

They also wasted a command bullpen performance in the opener, when Francisco Rodriguez, Brendan Donnelly and Ben Weber pitched six innings and gave up no earned runs, until Weber yielded a run in the 13th on an infield single, error and single to walk off with a loss.

Gabe Lacques, [phone]

gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com