Angels’ Harvey Pays a Debt, Ties a Record : Baseball: He saves McCaskill’s 1-0 victory over the Red Sox and equals Moore’s club mark for saves.

For one heart-stopping instant, Bryan Harvey saw it all wiped out, all the effort Kirk McCaskill had expended to pitch eight shutout innings and his own chance to repay a long-owed debt to his teammate.

With Wade Boggs on third base, the game hung in the balance as long as Jack Clark’s soft liner hung in the humid air in Anaheim Stadium Saturday. Only when Angel second baseman Luis Sojo scampered back a step or two to catch Clark’s line drive, completing the Angels’ 1-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox, did Harvey permit himself to breathe and enjoy tying the club record of 31 saves, set in 1985 by Donnie Moore.

That Harvey saved the game for McCaskill (10-16) enhanced the moment, for he had been unable to save a game for McCaskill in similar circumstances on July 15.

On that occasion, McCaskill had shut out the Baltimore Orioles for eight innings and yielded to Harvey for the ninth, only to see Harvey give up a two-run homer to Chito Martinez in a 2-1 Baltimore triumph. When McCaskill saw Harvey come out of the bullpen Saturday, he thought not of that night, but of so many other nights when Harvey had succeeded.

“I think that’s even more reason to bring Harv out there,” said McCaskill, who issued no walks and struck out two in winning for only the third time in his last 11 decisions.

“(What happened against the Orioles) is not going to happen too often.”

Hearing that later, Harvey smiled. “I’m glad he’s got that much confidence in me,” he said.

Almost more than Harvey had in himself, because the blown save against Baltimore was very much on his mind.

“I thought about that a time or two,” Harvey said dryly. “He pitched so good that night, like this night here. After Boggs got that hit, I said, ‘I’ve got to get these guys out.’ ”

After giving up a leadoff double to Boggs, Harvey came dangerously close to duplicating what happened against Baltimore. Jody Reed sacrificed Boggs to third, and Phil Plantier had Boston’s first chance to tie the game. After wildly missing Harvey’s first two pitches and fouling off the third, he lined a shot to the right side that was cradled by Wally Joyner in a half-crouch.

Clark represented the Red Sox’s last chance to gain ground on AL East co-leaders Detroit and Toronto, and it looked for a moment as if he had prolonged the game when he lined Harvey’s first pitch toward right field.

“I thought that had a chance to fall in,” Harvey said. “I really wanted this one. I don’t mind losing a game if it’s tied when I come in, but for a guy to pitch a three-hitter that he takes to the ninth and I messed it up, I feel bad.”

Neither McCaskill nor Harvey had reason to feel bad Saturday. The only offensive support provided them was Dave Winfield’s one-out homer in the seventh inning off rookie left-hander Kevin Morton (3-3), but they preserved the lead to send the crowd of 31,597 home happy, having seen a bit of Angel history.

“Harv got the job done. They hit the ball hard, but he got it done,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “We’re very fortunate to have won it, glad to have won it.”

They won it because Winfield, whose production has decreased dramatically since the All-Star break, hit a fastball from Morton into the seats in left field for his team-leading 23rd homer of the season.

“Both his previous at-bats I threw a lot of off-speed stuff,” said Morton, who gave up only one other hit--a leadoff single in the first to Luis Polonia--in his seven-inning stint. “I just threw him a fastball, a strike on the outside part of the plate. He hit it.”

The homer was Winfield’s first since he hit his 400th Aug. 14 at Minnesota and only his 10th RBI since the All-Star break.

“I just haven’t gotten any hits recently,” Winfield said. “When every fifth hit is a home run, that ain’t too bad. I’m starting to hit the ball and feel pretty good.”

Harvey felt the same after tying Moore’s record and earning his 98th career save.