McCaskill’s Walk on Wild Side Ends With One Bad Pitch : Angels: He squirms out early jams, but a high fastball to Canseco in the seventh seals Angels’ fate.

Angel pitcher Kirk McCaskill seemed to be living a charmed--if not well-armed--existence for most of Monday night’s home opener against the Oakland Athletics.

McCaskill, who struggled through much of his seven-inning stint, walked the first three batters to start the game, added another walk in the first inning, but somehow got out of the mess with allowing just one run.

The A’s had runners on second and third with none out in the fourth inning. Once again, McCaskill slithered out of the jam, giving up only one run and keeping the Angels within a run of Oakland.

Despite McCaskill’s high-wire act, the right-hander entered the seventh with the score tied, 2-2, and was one pitch--one very fat, very poorly placed pitch to slugger Jose Canseco--away from escaping with a no-decision and a chance for a victory.

But Canseco didn’t let the pitch get away, slamming a high fastball into the left-center field bleachers to lift Oakland to a 5-2 victory in front of 44,339 in Anaheim Stadium.

“That was right where you like to have a pitch thrown to you if you’re a big power hitter,” Angel catcher Lance Parrish said. “He left it up and over the plate, but that’s going to happen.”

Parrish would have preferred something down and away, something of the breaking-ball variety, and in fact called for a curve on the first pitch to Canseco. McCaskill had fooled Canseco badly in the fifth inning, striking him out with a low curve.

But McCaskill, who had control problems all evening (six bases on balls), wanted to get ahead of Canseco, so he shook off Parrish, opting for the fastball.

What happened next was an optical delight for Canseco, whose eyes must have lit up at the sight of the offering.

Canseco, jammed by Cincinnati Reds pitchers into a one-for-12 performance in last year’s World Series, extended his massive forearms and sent the pitch towering into flight.

“That was a classic case of a bad pitch at a bad time,” said McCaskill, who took the loss and dropped to 1-1. “I tried to jump ahead of him, but it was a bad idea and a bad location.”

Still, that pitch was nothing compared to the location of several of his first-inning efforts. McCaskill has a variety of pitches but added a new wrinkle to his repertoire Monday night--the dirt ball.

Four times in the first inning, McCaskill bounced pitches to Parrish. Normally a control pitcher, he threw 23 pitches in the first inning, 16 balls and seven strikes.

He walked Lance Blankenship on a full count, Dave Henderson on a 3-1 count and Canseco on a full count before Harold Baines grounded into a run-scoring double play. McCaskill then walked Terry Steinbach on four pitches, but Mark McGwire flied out on the first pitch to end the threat.

“I was a little too keyed up and had a hard time calming down,” McCaskill said. “I was trying to be too fine. Instead of sitting back and throwing strikes, I was trying to be too perfect.”

McCaskill had some good innings--retiring the side in order in the third, fifth and sixth--but he never seemed to have much rhythm. He threw 105 pitches, gave up six hits and struck out four.

“I guess Mac was a little out of whack tonight,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “But he was very fortunate to get out of those two innings with only one run. Overall, he did pretty well.”

Asked if he thought McCaskill got back into whack after the first inning, Rader said, “I don’t know how you get back into whack, but he pitched more effectively. He looked like he was trying to be awfully fine early in the game, and that takes away from your aggressiveness.”