ANGELS FRESH START WITH NEW MANAGER LOOKS STALE.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

John McNamara got his first close-up look at the Angels Tuesday night.

Now he knows what troubled the sleep and churned the stomach of Marcel Lachemann, who resigned earlier in the day as the team's manager.

McNamara, in his first night on the job in an interim capacity, watched the Angels wimp out at the plate, make at least one questionable defensive decision and stumble out of the bullpen on the way to a 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins before 20,058 fans at Anaheim Stadium.

New guy, same old stuff: The defeat was the seventh in the past eight games for the last-place Angels and pushed their American League West deficit to 10-1/2 games - matching their widest of the season.

``We ran into a well-pitched ballgame by them and they just shut us down,'' McNamara said when it was over. ``It wasn't for lack of effort. We had a few chances. It would have been a lot better with a couple of key base hits.''

Against a Twins team that has been having troubles of its own, even the fresh-starting Angels couldn't get well.

Twins starter Brad Radke came into the game with 13 losses - which almost gets into Jim Abbott territory - but was made to look like Charles Nagy by these guys.

The Angels batted 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. And the Nos. 3-4-5 hitters were a combined 1 for 12, with six strikeouts (four called), this despite McNamara's decision to move Tim Salmon down a notch in the order to fifth and Chili Davis up one to fourth. (My, but those deck chairs did look smart in their new configuration.)

By the finish, the Angels were reduced to rants and raves. Jim Edmonds was tossed from the game by plate ump Dan Morrison in the eighth for arguing called strikes.

Then there was the defensive lapse. In the Twins' two-run sixth, catcher Jorge Fabregas caught a throw from the outfield and fired down to second to nail a runner. Great play if there are two out, but there was only one, and another runner scored uncontested from third.

Welcome, Mac, to Mickey's nightmare.

``This isn't over yet,'' McNamara said. ``We still have a long way to go.''

The Angels got a rough sixth inning from an otherwise effective starter, knuckleballer Dennis Springer, as he gave up two runs on four hits in the frame.

And they got little help from reliever Mike James, who allowed two of Springer's runners to score in the seventh when he was touched for two hard-luck singles.

McNamara didn't wait long to demonstrate that he plans to bring a bit more fire to the job than did Lachemann, his perpetually easy-going predecessor. The game was only four batters old when McNamara bounded off the top step of the dugout to argue a play at third base with umpire Fieldin Culbreth.

Some of the Angels regulars indicated that they'll welcome any spark the new guy can offer.

``His personality is different than the one we had here,'' said shortstop Gary DiSarcina. ``Marcel was reserved, a perfectionist. The way we were playing was killing him. His stepping down is not only good for him, but as a team, it's a sigh of relief. Let's get back to having fun.''