McCaskill Sharp as Angels Edge Mariners, 2-1

The media and fans may be focused on Jim Abbott’s major league debut tonight, but Angel Manager Doug Rader was more concerned with the status of his fourth starter Friday night.

There are victories, and then there are victories, and you can bet Rader was hoping as much for a strong performance from Kirk McCaskill as he was for a win over the Seattle Mariners.

“Tonight’s very, very important for us,” Rader said before Friday night’s 2-1 Angel victory before 22,882 fans at Anaheim Stadium. “There’s nothing physically wrong with Kirk, but if you’re emotionally preoccupied, it can affect you physically. We need to get him into a better posture.”

The last time McCaskill pitched, his posture was slumping and so was the Angels’ outlook for 1989. He pitched against Edmonton, the Angels’ triple-A affiliate, in an exhibition game Sunday and allowed eight hits and nine runs in 3 1/3 innings.

That raised McCaskill’s spring earned-run average to 6.49 and more than a few questions about his health and well-being.

McCaskill, meanwhile, told Rader and his teammates not to panic. He was just trying too hard and had fallen into some bad habits. His problems were mechanical, not mental, he assured.

Well, he didn’t convince anybody right away Friday night. He retired the first three Mariners in order--on three drives to the warning track--and he yielded three hits, a walk and a run in the next two innings. But by the time McCaskill had finished seven innings, Rader and Co. were breathing a lot easier.

“It’s pretty obvious (McCaskill) doesn’t put much credence in practice,” Rader said, smiling. “I just wanted him to go out there and establish good stuff. To have happen what happened is a delight.”

McCaskill, the only Angel starter with a winning record (8-6) in 1988, allowed four hits, walked three, struck out two and picked up the win. Bryan Harvey allowed only one hit in the final two innings to get the save.

McCaskill, who had dismissed the Edmonton debacle as “a no-win situation” earlier in the week, finally admitted that he took that pounding hard.

“It was a very difficult week for me,” he said. “I wanted to do well to gear up for this start, and that performance bothered me. Finally, I was able to look at what I didn’t do.

“Marcel (Lachemann, Angel pitching coach) and I watched some videotapes of 1986 and saw some things I was doing differently, and we made some changes.”

McCaskill threw on Tuesday and regained a measure of confidence because he felt he had overcome the mechanical flaws in his delivery.

Rader certainly had no complaints after Friday night’s outing.

“He got behind a few times in the early innings, but I wasn’t concerned because he wasn’t steering the ball like he had been,” Rader said. “He was out there throwing.

“Considering the way things have been going (for McCaskill), you certainly couldn’t have predicted this. I’m tickled to death. Our run production is a concern, but I’d much rather have Kirk win one like this than by 9-8 at this point.”

Erik Hanson started for Seattle and held the Angels to five hits in six innings. But he walked the last batter he faced, catcher Lance Parrish, whom he had hit squarely in the side of the helmet in the second inning. Parrish eventually scored the winning run.

Parrish moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jack Howell and scored when Brian Downing lined a single to right-center off reliever Mike Jackson.

The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the first when Wally Joyner, the ninth player in major league history to drive in 100 or more runs in each of his first two years before falling off to 85 last season, got his first RBI of 1989.

With two out and Devon White on first, Joyner drove a shot to deep center. Nineteen-year-old rookie Ken Griffey Jr. retreated to the warning track and leaped, but the ball carried just over his glove and hit high on the wall for a double.

The Mariners tied the score with a run in the third. Edgar Martinez walked and then Omar Vizquel singled off the glove of second baseman Mark McLemore, who was recalled from Edmonton Thursday to replace injured second baseman Johnny Ray. Harold Reynolds lined a single to right to score Martinez, but McCaskill squirmed out of the jam by getting Griffey to pop up, Alvin Davis to line to right and Darnell Coles on a ground-ball forceout.

“It felt good to get out of a jam for a change,” McCaskill said. “The numbers might look OK tonight, but I’m not completely satisfied. I’m still struggling with my curveball.

“But this sure as heck beats giving up 12 runs to the triple-A club.”

Angel Notes

Left-hander Jim Abbott, who makes his first start tonight, is doing his best to avoid thinking about the ramifications of his much-ballyhooed jump from collegiate ball to the big leagues. “I’m trying not to read too much about it,” he said. “I feel I belong here. I think the Angels feel I belong here. So I don’t see how anyone else’s vote is going to count too much. I worked as hard as I ever have, and I think that the spring showed I do belong here. If things go bad, things go bad. That won’t necessarily be a reflection on the Angels’ judgment about bringing me here.” Manager Doug Rader, however, admits that the game carries some added significance. “The issue is for the kid to have some success,” Rader said. “The (media) onslaught will perpetuate either way, but it would be nice if it took on a positive note rather than a negative one.” . . . Abbott will face Mark Langston, one of the league’s few left-handed power pitchers. Abbott, whose style has been likened to Langston’s on more than one occasion, says he has closely followed the Mariner ace’s career. “He’s a great pitcher,” Abbott said. “Now I have to tone down my astonishment of his pitches and throw some of my own.” . . . Owner Gene Autry lifted the ban on alcoholic beverages in the Angel clubhouse Thursday night.