ANGELS LOSE, FAIL TO SWEEP 12 FROM A'S.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Daily News Staff Writer

It's the time of the season for ``must'' wins. Definitely for the Angels. Even for the Oakland A's.

The A's are so deep in last place they shouldn't care anymore. Yet you could see what rookie Jason McDonald had in mind when he called the last game against the Angels in 1997 ``probably the first must-win situation we've had since I've been here.''

``I mean, getting swept by a team in a four-game series is bad enough, let alone a whole year,'' McDonald said the night before, vowing to treat this as ``do or die.''

Thus did a bad team with something to prove stomp all over a good team in the shadow of elimination Thursday at Anaheim Stadium, the A's winning 7-3 to finish the season series against the Angels with a 1-11 record.

``There's not much difference between 1-11 and 0-12,'' admitted A's left fielder Matt Stairs, ``but losing 11 in a row to anybody is embarrassing.''

Embarrassing the A's again was a must for the Angels, who instead slipped six games behind the Seattle Mariners in the American League West with nine to play, and were on the brink of elimination from the wild-card race against the New York Yankees.

The Angels gave it an uncharacteristically meek effort after falling behind 5-1 on the A's six hits off Jason Dickson in the fifth inning.

Four of those runs could be traced to Brent Mayne bowling over Chris Turner, keeping the Angels catcher from fielding an in-time relay from shortstop Gary DiSarcina on Scott Brosius' one-out double.

Turner - who suffered a cut that required four stitches inside his mouth and a bruised left cheekbone that was to be X-rayed Thursday evening - stayed in the game long enough to watch Brosius score on McDonald's two-out infield single, and McDonald and Dave Magadan score on Ben Grieve's double.

The Angels had to admit Mayne's play wasn't dirty, just hard-nosed.

``I saw the replay and it looked clean,'' said Chad Kreuter, who replaced Turner behind the plate.

Dickson (13-8) was perfect for 3-2/3 and gone an inning later, blaming bad luck like McDonald's chopper off the plate.

``I understand things like that are going to happen,'' said Dickson, who hasn't won since Aug. 23, when the Angels were 1-1/2 games off the pace. ``But it seemed like everything happened in one inning.''

Oddly, everything stopped happening after Darrell May relieved Dickson. May retired 10 of 11 A's and allowed the Angels to scratch within 5-3 with single runs in the sixth (when Luis Alicea doubled home Tim Salmon) and eighth (when Salmon doubled and came around on an error).

Then the game got away again in the ninth when the A's scored twice against Greg Cadaret and Pep Harris on three walks, two wild pitches, a Salmon throwing error and a fly ball apparently lost in the sun by Garret Anderson.

By the end of the 3-hour, 15-minute game, the Angels were slump-shouldered.

``Bases on balls will do that,'' manager Terry Collins said of his team's listless appearance. ``You don't throw (strikes), and fielders are back on their heels.''

That's not the look Collins is used to.

``If they want to pack it in, they better let me know on the plane, so I can get somebody who's ready to play,'' Collins said before the Angels flew to Texas. ``We've fought our butts off. We've got nine games left, and irregardless of where we are (behind the Mariners), we'll go and play the game hard for three days in Texas.''

And hope the Rangers have nothing to prove.

Notes: The 3:05 p.m. start Thursday apparently was an Angels first. It was a getaway day for both teams, requiring an afternoon game, and Angels management decided to experiment. ``Some (fans) say 1 o'clock is too early,'' communications director Bill Robertson said. ``It's easier to work half a day and get down here at 3 o'clock.'' Foremost: the 14,000 Disney employees from Burbank and Anaheim who were given tickets by the company. They swelled the announced attendance to a misleading 26,689. . . . Garret Anderson's first-inning double off Dave Telgheder (4-5) was the Angels left fielder's 174th of the season, a personal high. . . . The Angels have never swept a season series. . . . The A's are 2-3 against the Mariners with seven meetings to go.

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