Angels Avoid Sweep as McCaskill, Moore Pitch Hurt and Win

Pitching through pain became the Angel way Sunday. Kirk McCaskill was asked to work into the ninth inning with a blister on the middle finger of his right hand. Donnie Moore was called upon to crank up a few final fastballs with a sore shoulder that is expected to receive a cortisone shot today.

Why?

Because if they hadn’t, the greatest hurt of all awaited the Angels--a likely sweep by Baltimore, with two games in that house of horrors known as Yankee Stadium staring them in the face.

It was Win Or Bust, so McCaskill and Moore risked digit and limb in one last stand at Memorial Stadium. Together, they helped squeeze out a 4-3 victory over the Orioles in a game that remained in doubt until Fred Lynn’s final swing on Moore’s final pitch.

It was a fastball, delivered hard and on the outside corner. Lynn missed it, coming up empty for the third strike and the third out, leaving the potential tying and winning runs on base.

By that much, the Angels were able to salvage one of three games in Baltimore and stave off the advance of the second-place Texas Rangers. The Angels lead by three. Texas, who has won three straight, picked up two games in two days on the Angels in the American League West.

“We couldn’t afford getting swept here,” said Moore, who earned his 16th save after losing Friday’s series opener. “We couldn’t risk going into Yankee Stadium for two games with a two-game lead. And we need those two badly .”

The urgency of the hour was sensed as early as the first inning, when McCaskill’s blister was first detected. Manager Gene Mauch and catcher Bob Boone looked at the finger and, considering the Angels’ depleted bullpen, made a request of McCaskill.

Pitch on, young man.

“He was going to pitch till it bleeds,” Mauch said.

“It’s like riding a horse entering the top of the stretch,” Boone said. “You don’t want to whip him because it hurts him? That’s just too bad.”

McCaskill struggled early, surrendering a run-scoring double to Eddie Murray in the first inning and a solo home run to Larry Sheets in the second, but went on to grin-and-bear-it far beyond Angel expectations.

“We were hoping he could just make it through five innings,” Boone said.

McCaskill made it until the final out. From the third inning through the eighth, McCaskill limited the Orioles to just two hits--a single by Lynn in the third and a double by Murray in the eighth. In one stretch, he retired 13 straight batters.

He opened the ninth inning with two quick outs but ran into trouble when Baltimore Manager Earl Weaver began running pinch-hitters to the plate. The first, Juan Beniquez, walked. The second, John Stefero, singled to left.

Mauch then sent pitching coach Marcel Lachemann to the mound for an update on the blister. When the ensuing conference showed signs of hemming and hawing, Mauch joined them--for the purposes of personally welcoming Moore from the bullpen.

“I knew if they talked too long, Donnie was coming into the game,” Mauch said. “The blister wasn’t bleeding, but it was bad enough.”

On Friday night, Moore, playing with a sore shoulder, threw the pitches that allowed the Orioles to turn a 7-3 deficit into an 8-7 victory.

This time, he was asked to protect a 4-2 lead.

Moore delivered two strikes to pinch-hitter John Shelby, then a ball, then a split-fingered fastball that crossed the plate belt-high. Shelby lined it to left, scoring Beniquez to make it 4-3 and moving Stefero, the tying run, to second.

That set up a rematch between Moore and Lynn. Friday, Lynn completed the Baltimore comeback by stroking a bad-hop double off Moore that brought in the Orioles’ eighth run.

“Sure, I was flashing back,” Moore admitted. “I said, ‘Aw, hell, I hope we don’t go that route again.’ ”

A split-fingered fastball cost Moore against Lynn Friday, so he stayed with the straight stuff--a power fastball, with no frills--on a 1-2 count.

Lynn couldn’t deal with it, lunging and swinging and missing.

“He set him up with the change-up and then gave him the heavy stuff,” Mauch said in admiration.

Moore: “I was getting a lot of split-fingered fastballs up a couple of days ago, so I definitely decided to go with more fastballs. The arm’s still not 100%--it hasn’t been all year--but I had (Saturday) off and that definitely made a difference.

“I threw hard, but I needed to get just one out.”

Today, Angel team physician Dr. Lewis Yocum is scheduled to fly to New York to administer a cortisone injection to Moore. It is the second such injection Moore’s shoulder has received in the last two weeks.

“He might be my biggest concern right now,” Mauch said. “I’m so worried about him, I’m hesitant to bring him in at all.

“Except,” Mauch added, finally grinning his first postgame grin in Baltimore, “on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.”

Angel Notes

The Angels scored their first two runs on RBI singles by Wally Joyner and Doug DeCinces in the first inning. For Joyner, the hit was his 144th of the year--moving him to within one of the Angel rookie record. Jerry Remy had 145 hits as a first-year player for the Angels in 1975. . . . Joyner now has 89 RBIs, closing the gap on his competition for American League Rookie of the Year, Oakland’s Jose Canseco. The slumping Canseco, who went into the weekend 0-for-37, still leads the AL with 95 RBIs. . . . The Angels’ fourth run came courtesy one of the wildest pitches ever seen at Memorial Stadium. With Dick Schofield on third base in the seventh inning, Baltimore reliever Brad Havens lost his grip on the baseball and sent it sailing three feet over the heads of batter Bobby Grich and catcher Rick Dempsey--looking like an ephus pitch with too much oomph. Schofield scored easily. Havens went onto to retire all nine Angels he faced. “Havens looked good,” Baltimore Manager Earl Weaver said, “but we end up losing on a ball that slips out of his hand.”

Bob Boone had two singles and one RBI in three at-bats, raising his batting average to .444 (8-for-18) on the trip. Boone has also homered three times in the process. Boone was asked about this sudden surge at the plate. “I don’t know, I’ve never had one before,” he quipped. “Moose (Stubing, Angel batting coach) and I worked on a couple things with my stance back home and kicked it in this road trip. I haven’t found my stroke in some time. Maybe a miracle will happen and I’ll keep it.” . . . Reggie Jackson, warming up for the New York tabloids, told reporters that he hopes the Angels don’t follow the precedent they set earlier this month with Rod Carew and offer to retire his jersey. “If they do, I’d tell them, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ ” he said. Jackson was critical of the lack of publicity surrounding the Aug. 12 Rod Carew Day and how the ceremony was perceived by many as an afterthought on the part of the Angels. “I don’t want that happening to me,” he said.

With baseball rosters to be expanded Sept. 1, Angel General Manager Mike Port said he is considering “about six or seven” players for promotions from Edmonton. Probable candidates: Pitchers Ron Romanick and Bill Fraser, second baseman Mark McLemore, shortstop Gus Polidor, utilityman Darrell Miller and outfielder Devon White. “We can carry 40, but we want to consider only those who can help us,” Port said. Twenty-four man playoff rosters, however, have to be set by Aug. 31, creating the possibility that Port might make a move before then. One scenario: Gene Mauch shifting down to a nine-man pitching staff for the playoffs, which would open a spot for a position player. Mauch likes Miller’s versatility and White’s value as a late-inning defensive replacement. The odd-pitcher-out figures to be rookie Ray Chadwick (0-3). Chadwick could be sent down before Aug. 31 and then returned to the expanded roster Sept. 1. . . . Terry Forster’s ankle continues to show little improvement. Scheduled to pitch two innings for Edmonton Friday night, Forster was able to go only one. He struck out two and did not allow a hit. A sore tendon in the ankle continues to bother Forster and his availability status is listed as day-to-day.