McCaskill, Carew Lead Angels Over Brewers, 2-0

County Stadium must have looked like paradise to Rod Carew and Kirk McCaskill after making their problems in Fenway Park. Had the two Angels been banned from Boston last week, they probably wouldn’t have minded.

Carew’s quest for his 3,000th career hit got bogged down in Boston, where he went 1 for 18 with five strikeouts and only three balls hit out of the infield.

And McCaskill’s earned-run average suffered a severe blow when the Red Sox feather-pillowed him to death, putting together enough bloops and bleeders to amass eight runs in 2 innings.

Carew and McCaskill couldn’t get out of Boston soon enough--as evidenced by their handiwork Tuesday night in the Angels’ 2-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers before a crowd of 14,666.

Snapping out of a 3-for-30 slide, Carew had three hits in four at-bats against Milwaukee’s Danny Darwin. And each one held special significance.

The first, a double in the second inning, enabled Carew to pass Sam Rice and move into 16th place on the all-time career hits list. The second, a single in the fourth inning, scored Doug DeCinces with the Angels’ second run of the evening. And the third, a single in the ninth inning, put Carew at 2,990 hits for his career.

Number 3,000 is at hand. Ten hits to go . . . and counting.

Meanwhile, back on the mound, McCaskill was throwing a five-hitter to complete not only his first shutout as a major leaguer, but his first ever in 3 1/2 years of professional baseball.

“I might have had one in college. I can’t remember,” said McCaskill, who evened his 1985 record at 6-6 with the win. “I’m not big on statistics. But this is a big, big thrill.”

With it, McCaskill was able to deliver to the Angels their biggest first-place lead in the history of the franchise: 6 1/2 games. Oakland, which began the day in second place, lost to Boston Tuesday and fell seven games back. Supplanting the A’s in second are Kansas City and Chicago, both 6 games back of the Angels.

The Angels are leading a charmed existence these days. They get outscored, 24-7, in their two previous games and still manage to add to their advantage in the American League West.

The formula for success Tuesday was a lot of pitching by McCaskill and just enough hitting.

Brian Downing opened the fourth inning with his eighth home run of the season, giving McCaskill the only run he would need. Three batters later, Carew provided the insurance with his second hit of the night.

Afterward, Carew talked about turning things via two changes of scenery--leaving Boston and moving down to the No. 6 position in Gene Mauch’s batting order.

He even touched briefly upon a topic that he has kept off limits to much of the media for much of the summer--the race for 3,000.

“I’ve kept my mouth shut about it,” Carew said. “Three-thousand hits is something that should stand for itself. For the last 18 1/2 years, I’ve been doing it. I feel I don’t have explain it again.”

There is also another reason for Carew’s quiet quest: His often-cool relationship with the media, whom he believes has not given him his proper due.

“For the last 18 1/2, 19 years, I’ve supposedly been a horsebleep ballplayer,” Carew said. “But 3,000 hits is something they can’t take away from me.”

Carew moved closer to the milestone Tuesday by moving to new environs and moving to a new spot in the Angels’ lineup.

“I was swinging the bat badly in Boston,” Carew said. “I was trying to pull everything, and I ended up hitting weak ground balls to second base.

“I took extra batting practice here and tried to concentrate on what Rod Carew does best--hit the ball up the middle.”

Throughout his career, Carew has usually done that while hitting first or second in the batting order. Penciling him in at No. 6 was Mauch’s way of trying to snap Carew out of his recent decline.

“When you’re struggling,” Carew said, “Gene wants to try something new. He’s not trying to make me look bad.”

Mauch: “Well, if you can do anything to change a guy’s direction when you think he’s in a rut, you want to do it. You want to change his frame of mind.”

Changing McCaskill’s frame of mind was something Mauch left up to the pitcher on his own.

McCaskill contemplated his flogging at Fenway, studied three Angel pitchers as they got drilled Monday in a 16-3 Milwaukee win . . . and then decided things were going to be all right.

“For me, Boston was important,” McCaskill said. “It was important to not let that game get to me.

“Last night also helped me. I saw that the Brewers were swinging the bats well, just about as good as anybody in baseball the last few games. I knew what I had to do.”

McCaskill allowed two hits that recalled the spirit of Boston--carbon-copy loop singles to left by Jim Gantner and Ben Oglivie--and three others that landed in right field.

Only one was truly hit hard. That was Paul Householder’s double off the right-field fence in the fifth inning, a hit that should have scored Gantner from second. But Gantner, not sure if the ball would be caught, hung around second base too long and managed to move only to third on the double--thus preserving McCaskill’s shutout.

“He was good, wasn’t he?” Mauch said of McCaskill. “That’s the best he’s gotten all three of his pitches over (the plate) all year.”

For the Angels, it was an opportune time for McCaskill to produce his best outing of the season, with the team reeling from Monday’s 16-3 blitz.

“You’ve seen this team do that a lot this year,” Mauch said. “They don’t allow for carryovers. Carryovers are for the golf course.”

Tuesday, the Angels changed course--with Carew driving the ball again, and McCaskill keeping the Brewers well under-par.

Angel Notes

Geoff Zahn continues to experience discomfort in his left biceps tendon and has delayed his next workout to at least Thursday. “It’s tough to be so close,” Zahn said. “I feel like I’m ready to contribute and join in on the fun, but I’m having to still sit back. I can’t do anything about it. I’ve got to go about it real carefully. If I throw again and it gets worse, I don’t know what I’ll do. I don’t want to come back and be a lame duck pitcher.” Manager Gene Mauch echoed Zahn’s feelings about proceeding with caution. “We want him at his best the last six weeks of the season and we don’t want to jeopardize that,” Mauch said. “He’s very good against the clubs we finish up with (Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City and Texas). I want 3, 4, 5 wins out of Zahn in September and I’m going to do my best not to mess it up.”

Schedule change: The starting time for the Angels’ Aug. 2 home game against Minnesota has been switched from 5:20 p.m. to 7:30 because NBC, which had originally planned to televise the game, decided it will broadcast a Chicago White Sox-New York Yankee game instead. . . .The Angels’ Ron Romanick (11-4) opposes Ted Higuera (7-5) in today’s 11:35 a.m. (PDT) series finale.