Angels Scratch One Out : Baseball: McCaskill, making only his second start in 19 days, pitches well and Polonia’s bunt sets up the winning run.

After all the panic that sent the Angels flailing toward the bottom of the standings, they are making their way back to .500 with a measure of calm.

Against the Cleveland Indians Tuesday, they used the good-but-not-great pitching of Kirk McCaskill, making only his second start in 19 days after missing one turn because of a tender elbow and another because of his newborn baby’s illness.

They managed only seven hits, none of them home runs. But they held on for a 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians before 22,429 at Anaheim Stadium with the help of a bunt single by Luis Polonia in the fifth inning that set up the winning run.

The Angels are doing the little things right.

Polonia moved Rick Schu to third and reached first before third baseman Brook Jacoby’s throw. On the double play that followed, the winning run scored.

McCaskill (3-2) got the Angels to the seventh, and Mark Eichhorn wrapped it up, breezing through the final 2 1/3 innings with ease for his ninth save.

With Oakland’s loss, the Angels remained in fourth place but closed to 8 1/2 games back. They have won eight of their last nine, and at 23-24, they find themselves one victory away from returning to .500.

“There’s that old adage that you’ve got to win these kinds of games,” Manager Doug Rader said. “Well, you’ve got to win as many as you can--the description doesn’t matter.”

McCaskill gave up the one run on six hits in 6 2/3 innings to earn the victory.

Before Tuesday, he had pitched only three-plus innings since May 10, his only start in that time a no-decision in the Angels’ 4-3, 11-inning victory over Toronto at Anaheim Stadium last Thursday.

“I can’t even remember his last two or three starts,” Rader said. “They were last month. What he did today was based on pitching for a short period in his last start and with structured workouts. He did an admirable job.”

McCaskill’s attention has been centered on his wife, Dana, and their infant son, who had pneumonia but is now home from the hospital.

“To be honest with you, for about the last 10 or 12 days I haven’t given much thought to baseball,” McCaskill said. “I was glad to be able to come back tonight and see what I had. . . . I felt good up to the end. I wish I would’ve stayed in.”

Cleveland’s John Farrell (3-2) took the loss, giving up two runs on seven hits in seven innings.

The Angels and Indians had played nine shutout innings Monday behind the pitching of Angel Jim Abbott and Bud Black before the Indians took a 3-0 victory in the 10th.

Through 3 1/2 innings Tuesday, neither team had scored. The teams had played 12 scoreless innings in 13 1/2 over two days.

But McCaskill drew a better fate than Abbott.

Farrell opened the fourth inning by walking Wally Joyner, who went to third on Chili Davis’ single to right, bringing up Dave Winfield with none out.

Winfield grounded into a double play, but Joyner scored on the play, giving the Angels a 1-0 lead.

A lead--or even a run--was something Abbott never enjoyed the day before.

The Angels made the score 2-0 in the fifth.

Schu led off with a double to right. Polonia came up and was given the bunt sign.

Jacoby, the Cleveland third baseman, was playing back. Polonia faked the bunt on the first pitch, a ball.

“He moved on in a little closer, but I bunted anyway,” Polonia said.

Polonia’s bunt dribbled toward Jacoby, with Schu safely taking third.

Instead of a man on third with one out, the Angels had runners on first and third with none out.

The Angels added a run on Donnie Hill’s grounder to second. The Indians got Polonia and Hill on the play, but couldn’t stop Schu from scoring what became the winning run.

McCaskill’s margin of comfort eroded quickly in the seventh after he gave up a one-out triple to Sandy Alomar Jr. Cory Snyder then delivered a single to score Alomar.

An out later, McCaskill had thrown 93 pitches. With two outs and a runner on second--and perhaps with the memory of the ending Abbott met Monday--Rader brought on right-handed reliever Eichhorn, who lowered his earned-run average to 1.46 and recorded his ninth save of the Angels’ 14 this season.

“McCaskill was to the point where he had done his job,” Rader said. “With the nature of the hitters he was going to have to face--primarily fastball hitters--we wanted to go with Eichhorn.”

Eichhorn used 23 pitches in the final 2 1/3 innings, allowing one hit and facing the minimum seven batters.

Angel Notes

Shortstop Dick Schofield, who practiced sliding Tuesday the first time this season, will report to Edmonton today for a rehabilitation assignment, he said. Schofield said he expects to be with the Angels’ triple-A team for about a week. “I’ll probably play five innings for a couple of days and try to work nine innings the last three days,” said Schofield, who has yet to play this season because of a strained hamstring. Schofield said his recovery period has been “too long,” and that he hopes to be ready to start when he returns even though he “might not be 100%.”

With Schofield out, the Angels have used four different shortstops this season, committing 12 errors at the position, compared to 18 all last season. . . . Cleveland placed Keith Hernandez (strained left calf) on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Sunday. He is five for 33 (.152) since May 9. . . . Bert Blyleven, who presided over the first clubhouse court session of the season, reported that an Angel received a record fine of $50, but would not elaborate. Dante Bichette pleaded not guilty to a charge of missing a cutoff man. “My defense was that I said my cutoff man was myself, and I threw it in the dirt,” Bichette said.