WAITING GAME BEGINS ANGELS LOSE, BUT LOOK AHEAD TO ALDS OAKLAND 6, ANGELS 1.

Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer

OAKLAND - Winning the American League West with five games remaining on the regular-season schedule affords the Angels the opportunity to line up their pitching rotation and give their starters some time off with the playoffs set to begin Tuesday.

The Angels lost to the Oakland A's 6-1 Wednesday night in front of 34,562 at McAfee Coliseum with a starting lineup that featured only one regular starter in shortstop Orlando Cabrera, who singled in the top of the first inning and was replaced in the bottom of the first.

The Angels still have an opportunity to claim home-field advantage in the American League Division Series despite trailing the Yankees by two games and the Red Sox and Indians by one game.

But Angels manager Mike Scioscia said it's more important to have a healthy lineup come playoff time.

``What's important is how we're playing, not who we're playing or where we're playing,'' he said. ``It's great to have home-field advantage, but not at the cost of putting guys at serious risk of missing the playoffs.

``We won in 2002 in a situation where we only had home-field advantage in the World Series, and then each team won in the visiting team's ballpark. Last year we had home-field and we lost, and we were banged up.

Having the opportunity to get guys healthy is more important than grinding it out and risking guys missing the playoffs.''

Chone Figgins leads the team with 154 games played, and Darin Erstad is second with 151. Garret Anderson has been hampered by a sore back and knee.

In Wednesday's game, Angels starter Paul Byrd made his final regular-season appearance and gave up five runs (three earned) and six hits in six innings. Eric Chavez and Bobby Kielty homered for the A's.

--Notes: Bartolo Colon will start Game 1 of the American League Division Series and John Lackey will start Game 2, but the rest of the playoff pitchers won't be decided until the weekend. Scioscia and his staff will decide what roles will be best-suited for Byrd, Jarrod Washburn and Ervin Santana. ... Scioscia, his coaching staff and Stoneman will wait until the weekend to meet and decide on their playoff roster, wanting to get a better idea of who they'll be playing in the ALDS. Scioscia said the club is leaning toward carrying 10 pitchers, meaning the final spot would come to a choice from lefty Jason Christiansen, Kevin Gregg or Esteban Yan. They will probably carry three catchers, giving Josh Paul a roster spot. The final spot on the bench will go to either Jeff DaVanon or Zach Sorensen.

Joe Haakenson, [phone]

joe.haakenson(at)sgvn.com

CAPTION(S):

4 boxes

Box:

(1) ANGELS at OAKLAND

- Joe Haakenson

(2) GAME RECAP

(3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED

(4) ALMANAC