Angel Starters Are Looking a Bit Finished : Rotation Going in Circles: McCaskill Hammered in 13-2 Loss to Tigers

The fact that the Angels are leading the American League West in late August may be an upset in itself. But even more surprising is how they got -there.

The veteran hitters have produced a .249 team batting average, next to last in the league. The youthful pitching staff, however, had a 3.65 earned-run average before Saturday, third best in the league.

It may be nothing more than a return to reality, but the Angels’ pitching has begun to falter, and that decline continued Saturday at Anaheim Stadium.

The Detroit Tigers hit four home runs off Angel starter Kirk McCaskill, scored in bunches of three, three and six runs and ran off with a 13-2 victory before a crowd of 32,780. The defeat, along with Kansas City’s 8-2 win over Texas, reduced the Angel lead over the Royals to 1 1/2 games.

Angel fans had little to cheer about after the first two California batters. Gary Pettis led off with a walk, and Rod Carew followed with a home run, but the Angels managed just three more hits off Jack Morris, who went eight innings to improve his record to 14-7. Morris retired the side in order four times. Chuck Cary did it in order in the ninth.

Angel Manager Gene Mauch said there is no reason for concern, but a look at the Angel starters’ performance in the last five games might qualify as reason enough for panic.

Or at least, reason enough to stock up on antacids before the Angels depart later this week on an 11-day, 10-game trip into New York, Detroit and Baltimore.

The last pass through the rotation of Ron Romanick, Mike Witt, John Candelaria, Jim Slaton and McCaskill produced statistics to unnerve even the most optimistic of managers. Consider:

--In the last five games, Angel starters have a combined earned-run average of 9.93 and have lasted an average of 4 1/2 innings. (And Witt went the distance in his stint, allowing only two earned runs.)

--In each of those games, the Angels have trailed before they had a chance to bat.

--Angel pitchers have allowed 13 home runs in that five-game stretch.

“I don’t get concerned,” Mauch said firmly. “I just write down their names and expect them to do the job.”

The last time McCaskill faced the Tigers, he went into the seventh inning with a no-hitter.

Saturday, he lost a chance at a no-hitter and a shutout before delivering his seventh pitch. The rookie right-hander had allowed just five home runs in his last 108 innings before giving up a pair in the first inning Saturday.

Leadoff hitter Lou Whitaker hit a 3-and-2 pitch deep into the right-field seats to start the Tiger power parade. One out later, Kirk Gibson lined a single to right, and Lance Parrish hit a home run that landed about 20 rows into the left-field seats to give Detroit a 3-0 start.

McCaskill got out of the inning without any more damage, but not very impressively. Darrell Evans hit a towering fly ball to center that Pettis caught a step in front of the warning track, and Nelson Simmons hit a drive that Brian Downing caught on the track in left-center.

McCaskill, who had lasted at least seven innings in 12 of his 22 starts this season, didn’t look as if he’d see much of this one until the Angels got back in the game almost as quickly as Detroit jumped ahead.

But Parrish gave the Tigers a 4-2 lead in the third with a long home run to dead center, his 22nd homer of the season. Chet Lemon, who finished with five RBIs, hit a three-run homer in the sixth to break it open, and the six-run eighth served only to humiliate reliever Luis Sanchez.

Sanchez came on with one on and gave up two walks, three doubles and a single.

“It was just one of those days when you weren’t going to get away with any mistakes,” McCaskill said. “I can live with the effort, just not the result. The pitches Parrish hit (for homers) were stupid . . . a high change-up and a high cut fastball.”

Mauch agreed that McCaskill hadn’t pitched poorly, and indicated he thought the whole point was academic considering the way Morris--the winningest pitcher in the majors during the ‘80s--was going.

“Kirk didn’t pitch that poorly--it’s just that every time he threw a high cookie, somebody ate it up,” Mauch said. “And anyway, the way Mr. Morris was going after the third inning, there aren’t too many teams going to beat him.

“We’re not hitting all that well and we’re not pitching all that swift, but we’re still where we want to be.”

That’s pretty much the way Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson saw it, too.

“I wouldn’t care if the Angels didn’t win it, but I still think they will,” he said. “My God, to play the way they’ve played this year . . . find me one guy who picked them to finish higher than fourth.”

Angel Notes The weather returned to August form Saturday, peaking at 92 degrees at Anaheim Stadium, and the dreaded day-game-after-a-night-game became all that much more dreaded. “I hate day games after night games . . . I hate ‘em,” Angel second baseman Bobby Grich said, echoing the sentiments of many of his veteran teammates. The Angels may find playing two games within 14 hours distasteful, but they’ve managed a 17-12 record in those games. . . . Luis Sanchez, celebrating his 32nd birthday Saturday, was welcomed with a smattering of boos as he took the mound to replace Kirk McCaskill in the eighth inning. Sanchez has a 5.88 earned-run average and one save this season after leading the club with 11 saves last year. He was responsible for five of the Tigers’ six runs in the inning and had a subtle gesture for the crowd in response to the chorus of boos he received after finally retiring the side. . . . Jack Howell’s steal of second base in the second inning was his first in the major leagues.