Thirteen Lucky for Angels

The Angels tried yelling at each other on their recent two-week trip. They also tried yelling at umpires. Monday, they returned to Anaheim Stadium and resorted to a calm, rational talk among themselves.

Whether the pregame, players-only meeting shook things up wasn’t clear. What was apparent was the end of a losing streak at five games.

The Angels flailed away for six innings, then came up with a 13-run seventh in a 16-8 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The 14,540 in attendance at Anaheim Stadium saw the Angels come up with clutch hits--and more clutch hits, something that had been lacking of late.

“We’ve been trying too hard,” Manager Terry Collins said. “They all know we’ve been having trouble scoring runs. They go up there thinking, ‘I got to drive this run in. I got to drive this run in.’ Everyone wants to be the guy.”

Almost everyone was the guy in the 13-run seventh inning. The Angels sent 18 batters to the plate and had and 11 hits.

“We were four hits from four more wins on this last road trip,” Collins said. “We just couldn’t get the big hit.”

They came in bunches in the seventh.

There were two by Garret Anderson, who drove in a season-high three runs. Anderson’s bases-loaded two-run single in the seventh gave the Angels a 7-6 lead.

Moments before, Jim Edmonds had hit a two-run homer, his first home run since April 23.

Big hits?

Darin Erstad had two in the seventh inning: a run-scoring double just before Edmonds’ home run and a two-run single later in the inning.

Big hits?

Jim Leyritz had a two-run single. Tim Salmon and Dave Hollins each knocked in a run.

“One guy can’t do it, it takes 25,” Collins had said before the game.

Who knew the Angels would take him so literally? Or was it an inspired performance following their meeting held before batting practice? The meeting took little time and involved no screaming.

“It was a meeting you have from time to time,” Salmon said. “We did a little soul searching.”

Said shortstop Gary DiSarcina: “The frustrating part is being in games that you had a good chance to win.”

There was a lot of such frustration on the trip. The Angels lost four games by two or fewer runs and had slipped six games behind the West Division-leading Seattle Mariners.

It boiled over at times. There had been a screaming match between catcher Jorge Fabregas and coach Rod Carew in Baltimore. Fabregas and Collins were ejected for arguing with home plate umpire Joe Brinkman on Sunday in Milwaukee.

The scene, and team, was more serene at Anaheim Stadium.

The Angels fell behind, 5-0, in the first inning, then wasted chances, stranding five runners during the first three innings.

The White Sox, underachievers until recently, came in with a five-game winning streak and had won eight of 11. They were finally getting the expected production from Frank Thomas and Albert Belle.

The best those two could manage Monday night was Belle’s broken-bat, two-run single in the White Sox’s five-run first inning. Thomas struck out and Belle popped up with the bases loaded in the eighth.

Still, the White Sox seemed on their way to victory in the first, when they smacked around starter Allen Watson, who was coming off two solid starts.

“Allen has been keeping the ball low and throwing all his pitches for strikes,” Collins said.

Watson did neither. He was yanked in the sixth Monday after six walks, one wild pitch and one balk, which allowed Chris Snopek to score in the sixth inning for a 6-2 White Sox lead.

The Angels came back with two in the first on a sacrifice fly by Leyritz and a two-out single by Anderson. They then unloaded in the seventh.

“The key is persistence,” Salmon said. “We’ve had opportunities, especially in the last few games. I’ve come back from road trips where things were much worse and much more serious.”

* NEGOTIATIONS: Peter O’Malley said he was talking with Rupert Murdoch about buying the Dodgers. A1