ANGELS : There Aren’t Enough Innings to Go Around

His name was nowhere on the pitching schedule--not as a starter, not as a reliever, not even as a backup.

Joe Grahe seemed to have disappeared, although Angel Manager Doug Rader said the competition between Grahe and Scott Lewis for the fifth spot in the rotation isn’t over. Grahe knows Lewis will start Thursday against the Giants, and Grahe doesn’t know when he will pitch again. But he doesn’t fear that he has been taken out of the picture.

“I may have, and I may not have. It’s out of my hands,” said Grahe, who pitched three creditable innings in relief of Kirk McCaskill Monday in the Angels’ 5-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. “I just go out and give them some innings and do the best I can. I’ll just keep plugging away and see what happens.

“(Not knowing when he’ll pitch again), that’s the adventure. If I don’t pitch again, I’ve still got the whole rest of the year to look forward to. A lot of things can happen in six months, and to base it all on these two weeks is ridiculous. If I don’t make the team now, it doesn’t mean I won’t be with the team in a month. You create a lot of ulcers worrying about things like this.”

The cancellation of two B games has created a problem for Rader and pitching coach Marcel Lachemann. They want to give Grahe a start, but don’t want to disrupt the schedules of McCaskill, Chuck Finley, Jim Abbott and Mark Langston. They are contemplating asking opponents to play 11 or 12 innings to give the pitchers more work.

“It’s not a situation right now where somebody is going to eliminate themselves,” Rader said. “Between Joe and Scott right now it’s too close to call. I know Lach is noncommittal and I’m noncommittal. I’m not trying to vacillate. It’s a close competition between the two men. . . . We’re making this as equitable as possible.”

Grahe struck out two and gave up four hits, keeping his earned-run average at 3.00 through 12 innings. Lewis’s ERA is 3.55 after 12 2/3 innings.

“I have my job to do, and I have to make it as tough a decision for them as I can,” Grahe said.

Angel Notes

Kirk McCaskill was satisfied with his five-inning, two-run stint and the results of a minor change in his delivery.

“I had my stationary (left) foot off the rubber. I moved it back and it’s given me a little better hip position. It’s made a world of difference,” McCaskill said. “I felt better about my curve today. I kept the ball down and I feel pretty good about it.”

Scott Bailes kept his ERA at 0.00 by pitching a scoreless ninth inning against Milwaukee, but the left-hander was angry with himself for giving up two hits. “This was the first time I didn’t feel in control this spring,” he said. Controlling his blood-sugar level has worked a remarkable change in Bailes, whose ERA ballooned to 6.37 last season. After feeling tired and weak for months, Bailes underwent tests over the winter and learned he had hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. A special regimen has given him energy and a good chance of winning a spot in the bullpen. “They say hypoglycemia can affect your concentration. I know I had no plan out there. I was behind all the hitters and I felt fuzzy,” he said. “I had to change my diet and the amount of food I eat. Since then, I’ve felt really good.” . . .

Infielder Bobby Rose, who started at first base to give Wally Joyner a day off, went three for four with three RBIs as the Angels ended an eight-game Palm Springs losing streak that dated to March 27, 1989. . . . Dave Parker was hitless for the third consecutive game after getting seven hits in his first 11 at-bats. Dante Bichette, whom the Angels sent to the Brewers for Parker, was two for three and scored a run. . . . Jack Howell, who started in left field, drove in the fifth run with a single in the fifth.