MCDOWELL PUTS UP A ROADBLOCK, STOPS ANGELS : CLEVELAND 4, ANGELS 3.

Byline: Associated Press

The Angels' road blues continued Friday night, courtesy of Jack McDowell and the Cleveland Indians.

McDowell allowed three hits over eight innings as Cleveland extended the Angels' losing streak to five games with a 4-3 victory. The Angels have lost 10 of their last 12 road games and are 8-20 away from home this season.

The Indians (38-20) maintained a one-game lead over the Chicago White Sox in the AL's Central Division.

McDowell (6-4) snapped a personal three-game losing streak. He walked two and struck out five in his first victory since May 16 and second of the season over the Angels.

Jose Mesa allowed one run on a walk and a hit in the ninth before earning his 21st save. After Orlando Palmeiro drew a leadoff walk and moved to third on J.T. Snow's single, Tim Salmon grounded into a run-scoring double play to cut it to 4-3. Mesa then got Garret Anderson to ground out to first.

``My heart started racing a little bit,'' Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove said about Mesa throwing five balls with his first five pitches. It was his first outing since he failed to record an out and allowed four runs on one hit, four walks and his own throwing error Tuesday night in blowing his first save since Sept. 3.

``The first time out after an outing like that, you have a little bit of wondering, but he came back and did a great job,'' Hargrove said.

Cleveland scored two unearned runs in the second off Shawn Boskie (7-2), who lost for the first time since May 14.

Albert Belle topped a weak grounder toward third baseman Tim Wallach, who simply missed it for an error. Two outs later, Jeromy Burnitz walked.

Then Herbert Perry struck out on a wild pitch by Boskie and was safe at first, loading the bases. Omar Vizquel then blooped a single over shortstop for a 2-0 Cleveland lead.

Eichhorn goes on DL:The Angels placed right-handed reliever Mark Eichhorn on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Thursday, because of an inflamed right rotator cuff.

To replace Eichhorn on their roster, the Angels recalled right-hander Ryan Hancock from Vancouver of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.

Eichhorn, 35, is 1-2 with a 5.13 ERA in 19 appearances this season. He was also on the disabled list from May 15-31 with rotator cuff tendinitis.

Hancock, 24, was 2-4 with a 3.98 ERA and one complete game in 10 starts with Vancouver this season. He was 12-9 with a 4.96 ERA and five complete games in 28 starts for Midland of the Double-A Texas League last year.

Also: Rain delayed the game's start by 1 hour, 36 minutes. . . . Angels shortstop Gary DiSarcina left in the fifth inning with a strained left hamstring.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO Cleveland's Jim Thome's two-run homer in the third dr aws congratulations from Carlos Baerga, right.

Associated Press