EARLY PAIN TURNS INTO LATE GAIN KENNEDY SPARKS LATE-GAME PRODUCTION ANGELS 8, TAMPA BAY 4.

Byline: Gordon Verrell Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - The Angels' biggest worry early on Wednesday night was whether Mo Vaughn might step on the celebrated Rally Monkey and crush it.

Vaughn was having that kind of game in the field, playing first base as if it were on a skateboard. Or maybe he was.

Anyway, Vaughn got back his footing just fine, the Rally Monkey turned up OK, and the Angels avoided the embarrassment of losing to the American League's poorest outfit, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Anaheim wiped out a four-run deficit and won 8-4 before an Edison Field crowd of 16,686.

Red-hot rookie Adam Kennedy slammed a three-run homer, the highlight of a five-run uprising in the fifth inning. And the top of the Angels' order - namely, Darin Erstad, Orlando Palmeiro, Vaughn, Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson and Troy Glaus - which, combined, had hit just .222 (16 for 72) the first five games of the homestand, came to life. The group kknocked in three of the runs, including the tying and go-ahead runs.

Ramon Ortiz survived the Angels' stumbling start to pitch into the seventh inning, strike out six and come away with his second consecutive win to improve to 6-5.

It was the Angels' sixth win in their last eight games, the sort of pace they're going to have to maintain if they sincerely have designs of heating up the race in the American League West.

There are a couple of major roadblocks, however.

One, the Angels now head out on a four-city, 13-game trip, their longest of the season. Not good. They're 29-39 away from Edison Field, the poorest road record by far of any of the half-dozen AL wild-card contenders.

And, two, the Devil Rays' next six games are against Oakland and Seattle, the two teams the Angels are trying to overtake in the AL West.

Tampa Bay, mind you, has been outscored 60-22 on its just-completed 10-game trip and is hitting under .200 for the month.

None of which seems to shake manager Mike Scioscia.

``I've always said, it's not where you're playing or who you're playing that's important,'' Scioscia said. ``It's how you're playing.''

Scioscia was probably choking on his own words the way the Angels stuttered through the first couple of innings Wednesday night. Vaughn in particular.

Twice he missed tagging the bag. Another time he threw late to the plate when all he had to do was tag the runner at first. He also threw a ball away at third. The game wasn't 30 minutes old when Vaughn had two errors and a strikeout. And Tampa Bay had a 4-0 lead against Ortiz, due in part to Fred McGriff's thunderous homer, his 23rd, in the first inning.

Meantime, the Angels' ``attack'' the first four innings against Cory Lidle consisted of a bunt single by Kennedy and a strikeout-wild pitch that enabled Glaus to reach first. Then, suddenly, in the fifth inning, the Angels got serious.

Glaus walked, Bengie Molina singled and Kennedy slammed his ninth home run into the right-center seats. It was his fourth consecutive hit over two games and he has six RBI in those four at-bats. It also earned Kennedy uncommon respect for a rookie second baseman: His next time up the Devil Rays intentionally walked him.

One more thing: It quickly got the Angels close, 4-3.

Benji Gil and Erstad followed with successive doubles, and the Angels were even 4-4. And when Palmeiro bounced a single to center to score Erstad, the Angels had the lead 5-4 and Lidle was gone.

The Angels were at it again in the sixth, with Gil and Erstad driving in runs and the Devil Rays helping out with an error by right fielder Steve Cox.

Erstad, with two RBI, now has 94 for the season, only six shy of becoming the first player to reach the 100-RBI plateau from the leadoff position.