Angel Pitching: a Rain Check : McCaskill’s Bid for 17th Delayed; He’ll Try Again Tonight

Some baseball trivia to pass the time on a rainy autumn night: The last time the Angels had two pitchers win at least 17 games on their staff in the same season was in 1976. Nolan Ryan had 327 strikeouts that season and could finish no better than 17-18 on a team that wound up 10 games below .500 and well out of the race in the American League West. Frank Tanana went 19-10, his best record as an Angel.

At the time, Kirk McCaskill was a Canadian teen-ager pursuing a hockey career, more concerned with goals and assists than balls and strikes.

But tonight--barring another freak September downpour--McCaskill will take the mound at Anaheim Stadium in search of his 17th victory and a place just below teammate Mike Witt (18-9) in the Angel books.

McCaskill (16-9) was set to oppose Cleveland Indians knuckleballer Phil Niekro Wednesday night but was informed shortly after arriving at the park that the game had been postponed until tonight. The rainout was the first at Anaheim since April 28, 1983, and was the first September washout since 1978.

“It’s a little frustrating when you come to the ballpark ready to pitch,” McCaskill said. “I thought we’d get this game in. Two hours before the game, I was thinking they were probably flying a helicopter over the field to dry it off.”

McCaskill’s eagerness to test his luck on the mound is understandable. His last outing was a 7-1 loss to Chicago last Friday, the night the Angels were the victims of a no-hitter by White Sox pitcher Joe Cowley. And McCaskill’s last victory came against the Indians, an 8-1 decision Sept. 9.

It also could be that McCaskill’s eagerness stems from simply enjoying his work. Any lingering doubts he may have had about giving up hockey five years ago, after he had been a fourth-round draft choice of the National Hockey League’s Winnipeg Jets, have been all but erased this season.

Entering Wednesday night’s games, McCaskill was fifth in the league in victories and seventh in earned-run average (3.41), strikeouts (186) and innings pitched (229). Witt’s name was listed ahead of McCaskill’s in each of those categories.

McCaskill said that Witt’s success has been contagious, that it has helped push him to new pitching heights.

“I think Mike Witt kind of took it by the reins and said, ‘I’m going, and if you want to follow, follow,’ ” McCaskill said. “He’s just such a model of consistency that anybody who emulates him will be in good shape.”

Witt, with his 18 wins, figures to get two more starts in his attempt to become the Angels’ first 20-game winner since Ryan went 22-16 in 1974. Witt and McCaskill have become the centerpieces of a five-man rotation that would be among baseball’s best were it not for the lack of an effective fifth man.

“I think a lot of people have overlooked our pitching staff,” McCaskill said. “People talk about (Roger) Clemens, (Tom) Seaver and (Dennis) Boyd in Boston but overlook what we’ve done. Imagine if we would have had John Candelaria healthy all year. And look at the year Don Sutton is having.”

Sutton won his 15th game Monday night against the Indians, providing another piece of trivia: It marks the first time the Angels have had three 15-game winners in the same season.

At 41 and in his 21st major league season, Sutton, the staff’s elder statesman, has been around long enough to develop a philosophy about the importance of pitching. “Any time you have a Mike Witt and a Kirk McCaskill on your staff, you aren’t going to go into any prolonged losing streaks,” he said. “Good pitching stops you from losing until your offense can win.

“There are three kinds of pitchers. There are pitchers who can cause you to win, pitchers who can cause you to lose and pitchers who can allow you to win.”

Sutton places himself in the last category. Witt and McCaskill, he said, are now firmly established in the first.