Rainout Puts Angels’ McCaskill Back on Hold

Cookie Rojas should have gotten all the facts before he signed that contract to manage the Angels.

“They told me this was God’s country,” Rojas said Thursday afternoon. “It rains in Los Angeles?”

Yes, it does, sometimes hard enough to postpone baseball games. It happened Thursday, washing out the Angels’ series finale with the Chicago White Sox at Anaheim Stadium after Kirk McCaskill threw seven pitches to Chicago leadoff batter Lance Johnson.

It was the 14th home rainout in Angel history and, in a quirky footnote, it occurred on the 25th anniversary of the club’s first home rainout--April 14, 1963. The opponents that day were also the White Sox.

McCaskill could have chosen a better way to commemorate the occasion. He started once in the previous 10 days, an 8-2 loss to Oakland last Friday, and will have to wait at least another day before his second start of the season.

“I waited a week before making my first start and now it will be at least another six days before this next one,” McCaskill said. “I really don’t want to push it back much further.”

Neither do Rojas and Angel pitching coach Marcel Lachemann, who will probably shuffle their weekend pitching alignment against Seattle to squeeze in McCaskill.

“Mike Witt will start (tonight), as scheduled,” Lachemann said. “Cookie and I will probably sit on the plane and kick around what we’re going to do after that.

“Pitching Kirk on either Saturday or Sunday is an option. If we went with the rotation as it is now, we’d basically be looking at 10 days (between starts). Obviously, delaying him too long would be a major concern.”

McCaskill is still waiting to throw his eighth pitch to Johnson. He worked the count to 3 and 2, plus a couple of fouls, before home plate umpire Joe Brinkman interrupted the game at 1:10 p.m.

After more than an hour’s delay, Brinkman called the players back onto the field, and McCaskill warmed up again. But before he could throw another pitch, the rain resumed, harder than before.

Brinkman waved the players to their dugouts again and, at 2:52 p.m., officially called the game.

Had there been another delay, followed by another attempt to play, McCaskill would not have been the Angel pitcher.

“He had already warmed up twice and it had almost been two hours,” Rojas said. “We wouldn’t have brought him out a third time. We’d have probably gone with (Ray) Krawczyk.”

Instead, the rains washed away those plans and left McCaskill waiting for another day, perhaps this weekend in Seattle.

And Seattle will be just fine with McCaskill. There, they play baseball under a roof.

No official makeup date has been set for Thursday’s rainout, although Rojas speculated that it could be in the form of a doubleheader Aug. 5, the next game scheduled between the Angels and the White Sox in Anaheim.

Rain checks for Thursday’s game may be exchanged for any remaining Angel home game this season, either through the mail or at the Anaheim Stadium box office. Refunds will be made by mail only.