Still Below .500, Angels Looking Up After a 5-2 Victory

Kirk McCaskill was marveling at the wonderment of the American League West, where the Angels can play sub-.500 baseball through late August and still strut around like playoff contenders.

“It’s kind of a nice situation to be in,” said McCaskill, whose 5-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays Sunday at Anaheim Stadium left the Angels with a record of 62-63. “There aren’t too many places in baseball where you can be one game under .500 and still be 3 1/2 games out.”

No, there aren’t. And for that, the Angels give thanks.

Despite losing 6 of 7 games to start a a home stand that is now 3-7, the Angels are in third place in the AL West, well within striking range of the division-leading Minnesota Twins, who lost their sixth straight game Sunday.

Last season, the Angels clinched the championship of what was thought to be a weak division with their 90th victory. This year, Angel Manager Gene Mauch considers 90 wins a pipe dream for any AL franchise west of Milwaukee.

“It will not take 90, I’ll tell you that,” Mauch said.

Eighty-five may be more like it. As hum-drum as that sounds, Minnesota’s 66-60 record puts the Twins on a pace that projects to 84.8 victories. The West has been won with less before. In 1984, Kansas City made the playoffs with a record of 84-78--a winning percentage of .519.

For the Angels to win 90 games, they would have to go 28-9 the rest of the way. To win 85, they’d need to close with a 23-14 record, which is probably asking more than they can deliver.

Still, the Angels have hope, an optimism based largely on how their pitching has fared during the last week.

With the combined seven-hitter turned in by McCaskill (4-5) and DeWayne Buice, the Angels limited the opposition to four runs or fewer for the seventh straight game. Against Toronto, the second-place team in the AL East, Angel pitchers allowed five runs in three games.

“This is the kind of pitching I was talking about when I popped off in spring training, saying we’d be doing this on a regular basis all year,” Mauch said. “The timing is good. Today was a good time to win one, and tomorrow will be a good time to win another one.”

This kind of pitching had been on hold for a variety of reasons, but none more significant than McCaskill’s sluggish return to form after arm surgery. In his first eight appearances since rejoining the club in mid-July, McCaskill went 1-5 with a 7.04 earned-run average. In his last start, McCaskill gave up 8 hits and 4 runs in 4 innings.

For McCaskill, Sunday was a step forward--or maybe backward, back toward the style that made him a 17-game winner in 1986. McCaskill pitched 6 innings against Toronto, yielding 8 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4.

The only runs he allowed came on a first-inning home run by Lloyd Moseby and a two-out, run-scoring double by Rance Mulliniks in the sixth inning.

“This was the best one since he’s been back,” Mauch said. “He hung a curve to Moseby and Moseby didn’t miss it. But besides that, he looked good. He had a nice changeup all afternoon.”

McCaskill saw it the same way.

“Yeah, I think this was the best, overall,” he said. “This was the first time I really felt in control out there. Against Minnesota (a game McCaskill won, 8-2, two weeks ago), I was always on the verge of losing it.

“This time, I felt in control. I didn’t really panic.”

The five runs scored by the Angel offense had something to do with that. In the last week, the Angels wasted some strong pitching performances, losing by scores of 4-1, 2-1, 4-2 and 2-0.

But finally, they capitalized with home runs by Wally Joyner and Bill Buckner and a run-scoring double by Tony Armas.

Joyner’s home run, his 25th of the season, highlighted a three-run third inning. After Devon White drove in the Angels’ first run with a sacrifice fly, Joyner delivered a two-run home run to give McCaskill a 3-1 lead.

Buckner’s sixth-inning home run, his second as an Angel, made it 4-2. And that other Boston castoff, Armas, drove in Joyner with the game’s final run with a pinch-double in the eighth inning.

“This is the kind of mesh--pitching and hitting--that we haven’t had,” McCaskill said. “That’s why we’ve been losing.

“Obviously, if we’re going to make a run at this, we’re going to do it with good pitching and timely hitting. I think everybody realizes that. So, let’s go for it.”

The race for 85 in ’87 is under way. Or maybe 86 victories, if somebody gets lucky.

“It still might be 90,” said Joyner, espousing the minority opinion. “But if someone wins 90 games, that means someone’s gonna be real hot in September.”

That doesn’t figure to happen, not in the lukewarm West.

Angel Notes

DeWayne Buice, who saved his 14th game Sunday, attributes the recent revitalization of Angel pitching to location of the missing link--Kirk McCaskill. “I think Kirk rushed himself in coming back,” Buice said. “I know Gene (Mauch)and Lach (pitching coach Marcel Lachemann) didn’t rush him, but Kirk, being a zealous kid, couldn’t wait to get back in there. Hey, he went under the knife. Arthroscopic surgery is an assault on the body. It takes time to come back from that and Kirk came back too fast. Now, he’s starting to put it together and Candy (John Candelaria) has thrown some good games lately. I think we’re starting to come around.” . . . Buice replaced McCaskill with two out in the seventh and worked 2 hitless innings, striking out the side in the eighth. “The gun had my fastball at 87, 88 (m.p.h.), which means the machine is screwed up,” Buice said. “It felt more like 60 or 55. My arm’s not sore, it’s not hurting, but it stiffened up after the long eighth inning. I had to rely on the forkball.” Buice admitted that it “was strange to have my arm stiffen up in 90-degree heat. It might have been because I threw four (innings) the other day.” Buice quickly added, however, that he wasn’t complaining about too much work. “Our manager’s tough, but I’m happy with the way I’m being used,” he said. “Hell, look at where I was this time last year--Midland, Tex.”

Tony Armas’ pinch-double gave him his third RBI in five appearances with the Angels. “I can’t tell you how much different he looks from the Tony Armas of last year,” Mauch said. “This actually looks like about how he was three years ago. I don’t know how much weight he lost, but he lost it in a good spot. He’s firmed up his upper legs and lost some pounds below the belt. Now, he’s trim, and it shows.”