ANGELS KEEP BREAKING EVEN ANAHEIM KNOCKED BACK TO .500, BUT EAST COAST TRIP SUCCESSFUL BOSTON 5, ANGELS 3.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

BOSTON - One-quarter of the way through their championship defense, the Angels look at themselves and aren't sure what they see.

For now, the only thing they can say with any clarity is that they're a .500 team.

``Treading water is OK if there's a period (when) you turn it on,'' second baseman Adam Kennedy said Sunday after the Angels completed a successful road trip with a 5-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. ``It's tough to say why you're treading water. Hopefully, we'll look back in a month and say we played well.

``Right now, we're not playing quite the baseball we're going to need to play to make sure we have a shot in September. But we need to turn it around soon. We're going to have to start playing better eventually.''

Eventually might arrive sooner than expected. The Angels are 21-21 and 6 1/2 games behind first-place Seattle. They've kept their heads above water during a period in which center fielder, No. 2 hitter and clubhouse catalyst Darin Erstad has been injured and the starting pitching has been as consistent as a '78 Fiat.

But relief is arriving in two waves. The first comes courtesy of the schedule.

Twenty-four of their first 42 games came against the Red Sox, New York Yankees, Seattle and Oakland, the top four teams in the American League. The Angels went 3-3 against each of them.

That's not bad given four of their eight position players have missed time because of injuries, their starting pitching has been worse than expected and players such as Scott Spiezio (.229) and outfielder Eric Owens (.217), who's playing a bigger role than anticipated, have not performed to their capabilities.

Now the Angels get a stretch of 12 consecutive games against Baltimore and Tampa Bay, two sub-.500 teams the Yankees and Red Sox fattened up on. And Erstad eventually will come back, though no timetable has been set for his return.

``I don't think anything says we're happy,'' manager Mike Scioscia said. ``In some ways we're fortunate to be where we are. In others, we felt maybe we should've won a couple more games. We're at a stage now where we're a quarter through the season, we're seeing elements come together that we need.''

Usually, strong defense is one of those elements, with first baseman Spiezio the most reliable of the bunch. Sunday, he made his third error this season at first, matching his total for all of 2002, and it helped the Red Sox salvage one of three games in the series and tie the Yankees atop the AL East.

With one out and one on in the second, Spiezio couldn't make a short-hop play on a ball hit by Trot Nixon, and the ball trickled into foul territory, creating a two-on, one-out situation for starter John Lackey (2-4).

``It took a weird hop, hit me in the bare hand,'' Spiezio said. ``Kind of disappointing, but it happens. I went and told Lackey, `Keep going.' He tried to pick me up, but they found some holes.''

Indeed they did. After Lackey hit Jeremy Giambi to load the bases, he gave up a two-run single to Jason Varitek, an RBI groundout to Johnny Damon and an RBI single to Bill Mueller to make it 4-0. Lackey gave up a solo home run to Manny Ramirez in the third but settled down to complete six innings, allowing two earned runs.

Without Tim Salmon (illness), the Angels scratched out just a sacrifice fly by David Eckstein in seven innings against John Burkett (2-2). Troy Glaus hit an RBI triple in the eighth and Bengie Molina a sacrifice fly in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate, but Jeff DaVanon and Eckstein grounded out to end it.

Still, the Angels went 4-2 on this road trip to Fenway and Yankee Stadium. The checkbook is balanced. Now, they need to put some wins in the bank.

``Hopefully we can get over this .500 hump,'' Lackey said. ``We keep hovering around it.''

Hovering isn't bad, Eckstein said, because at least the Angels are giving themselves a chance.

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The Angels' David Eckstein can only watch as Manny Ramirez trots around the bases after his third-inning homer in Boston's 5-3 victory Sunday at Fenway Park.

Winslow Townson/Associated Press