Six Runs in Seventh Make McCaskill and Angels 7-4 Losers

Seattle starter Steve Trout was glad to get past the first inning Friday night at Anaheim Stadium. After all, in his three previous starts, he had yielded 8 runs, walked 6, thrown 3 wild pitches, hit a batter, balked and committed an error . . . all in the first inning.

Angel starter Kirk McCaskill, still trying to regain his form of 1986, when he won 17 games before he had elbow surgery, had no particular phobias about any particular inning . . . until Friday, that is. In fact, McCaskill was pretty happy with the way things were going for six innings, but don’t mention anything about “lucky seven” to him these days.

For McCaskill, this seventh inning will go down as The Nightmare on State College.

The Mariners, with the help of a blooper, two ground-ball singles against a drawn-in infield and some embarrassing fielding by Angel right fielder Chili Davis, sent 11 men to the plate. When the ball-juggling ended and the dust cleared, eight of them had singled (a Mariner record), six of them had scored and Seattle was on its way to a 7-4 victory in front of 26,206.

McCaskill, already dressed and heading for the parking lot, bumped into a reporter in an Anaheim Stadium stairwell moments after the game.

“I’ve got nothing to say,” he said, looking down at his feet as he kept walking.

He might not have had a comment, but you can bet he’ll remember that dizzy inning for a long time, sort of the way one recalls a car accident.

Let’s see, he was pitching a four-hitter, leading, 2-1, everything was going along fine, and then, wham .

Mariner first baseman Ken Phelps led off the inning with a seemingly innocuous bloop single to right. One out later, Jim Presley lined a single to right that bounced in front of Davis . . . and then bounced off Davis and rolled toward the wall. By the time he retrieved the ball, Phelps had scored and Presley was standing on third.

“The ball just went off my glove,” Davis said, shrugging.

With the infield in, Rey Quinones grounded a single through the hole at short to score Presley. Then Harold Reynolds singled to right, and Davis had trouble getting the handle on this one, too. It dribbled away, and when he did get a grip, he compounded his second error of the inning by trying to throw out Quinones at third. Quinones was safe and Reynolds was able to cruise in to second.

“I guess I was thinking about the first one,” Davis said. “I was a little timid, and you just can’t do that out there.”

With the infield in again, Mickey Brantley grounded one just past the outstretched glove of Wally Joyner, bringing in Quinones with the third run of the inning. Scott Bradley then lined out to Davis--who managed to make a running basket catch--but Davis’ throw to the plate was 15 feet wide, and Reynolds scored easily. Henry Coto and Alvin Davis followed with singles and the Mariners led, 6-2.

Nobody could accuse Manager Cookie Rojas of having a quick hook on this evening, but he finally decided to go to his beleaguered bullpen. Stewart Cliburn came in and gave up an RBI single to Phelps before retiring Kingery, the 11th batter of the inning, on a pop-up to second.

“I was as surprised as anyone when those balls got away from me,” Davis said. “Let’s just say I (messed) up tonight.”

McCaskill ended up with the loss and at a loss for words. Rojas had little to add but sympathy.

“I think those mistakes in the outfield cost him the game,” Rojas said. “It’s a shame it had to happen, but these things do happen.”

Trout, who got the win, couldn’t have been too upset that he had to sit and watch his teammates prance around the bases, but the wait obviously didn’t help.

He gave up a leadoff double to Devon White to open the Angels’ half of the seventh, hit Jack Howell with a pitch and then Bob Boone drilled a shot just inside third base for a double that scored White. Seattle Manager Dick Williams had seen enough and brought in reliever Julio Solano. Solano allowed another run to score on pinch-hitter Bill Buckner’s sacrifice fly, but retired all three batters he faced in the inning.

Bill Wilkinson got the last four outs and the save for Seattle.

McCaskill and Trout, both known for not-so-great beginnings, had relatively minor troubles in the early going.

Trout made just one mistake in the first inning this time. He got a pitch out over the plate to Davis and Davis, who has a hit in 10 of his last 11 games, deposited it over the center-field fence. In that 11-game span, Davis has 3 homers and 11 RBIs.

Trout made the same mistake in the second and this time designated hitter Tony Armas lined a homer to left-center. Armas, who came into the game with a .444 lifetime average against Trout, now has 3 home runs in 21 at-bats against the Mariner left-hander.

McCaskill, who allowed 11 first-inning runs in just 13 starts last year, got through the first unscathed, but the Mariners worked a run off him in the second on a walk, a single and a fielder’s choice.

Angel Notes

Right-hander Bryan Harvey arrived from Edmonton Friday, glad to be in the big leagues and maybe even happier to be out of the Canadian cold. Harvey, who had a less-than-impressive spring, said he didn’t expect to be called up so soon. “It was a surprise,” he said. “It was earlier than I expected, but we’ll sure take it. It was cold as hell up there.” Harvey said his poor showing in Palm Springs may have had to do with the fact that he pitched in winter ball for the first time last year and his arm may have been tired. In five games with the Trappers, he had a 3.18 earned-run average and two saves. “He started out well up there, and then there was a lot of rain and he didn’t pitch for a while,” Manager Cookie Rojas said. “Then he pitched very well again in his last couple of outings.” Rojas said he intends to use Harvey as a set-up man initially, to allow the 24-year-old to build some confidence before having to pitch with the game on the line. . . . Harvey said he was experimenting with a slider in Edmonton but gave up on it after only a week. “I’m a two-pitch pitcher,” he said. “Fastball and forkball.”. . . Harvey pitched the ninth inning and walked two, but allowed no hits or runs.

Designated hitter Brian Downing, suffering from a slight muscle pull in his rib cage and in the midst of a batting slump in which he has just 4 hits in 36 at-bats, was out of the starting lineup for the third straight game Friday night. “Brian may be 90%, but I don’t want 100% of 90%,” Rojas said.