Bullpen Up, Angels Down Seattle : McClure, Harvey Close Out a 4-1 Win for McCaskill

Four months into the American League West race and the line on the Angels’ chances has been established, whether they like it or not.

The general perception: They will only go as far as their bullpen can take them.

Take this series against the Seattle Mariners, for example. Tuesday night, the Angels lose in the 10th inning when Greg Minton, the man who never serves up a home-run pitch, surrenders two of them to consecutive batters. Then, 24 hours later, they turn a three-run lead over to Bob McClure and Bryan Harvey and the Angel relievers respond with two perfect innings, protecting a 4-1 victory before 26,416 at Anaheim Stadium.

Yes, it could be that kind of stretch drive.

Down one night and up the next--that has been the theme running through the Angel bullpen most of this summer. And with their chief competition, the Oakland Athletics, owning a bullpen headed by Dennis Eckersley, that theme can prove a little unsettling.

Angel Manager Doug Rader’s thoughts on the matter?

He’d rather not think about it, at least not aloud, for superstition’s sake.

“I think the less emphasis placed on it the better,” Rader said. “Every time everybody opens their mouth (about the bullpen), one way or the other, it changes.

“So, I don’t want to say anything good about it.”

Wednesday, the Angel bullpen not only preserved Kirk McCaskill’s 12th victory, it also helped re-establish the Angels as sole leaders of the AL West. With Oakland losing, 3-2, to Chicago, the Angels lead the A’s again by one game.

McCaskill (12-6) needed the assistance, too. After shutting out Seattle for six innings, his back stiffened in the seventh, when the Mariners scored their only run of the night.

By the top of the eighth inning, the Angel bullpen was back in service.

“Kirk pitched great, (but) his back got stiff to the point where he was having difficulty finishing the pitch,” Rader said.

“McClure came in and Harvey came in and it turned out great.”

McClure worked the eighth inning and retired the side by getting Harold Reynolds to pop to catcher Bill Schroeder and Greg Briley to ground to first baseman Wally Joyner before striking out Alvin Davis.

The next inning, McClure gave way to Harvey, who had closed out his last outing with three consecutive strikeouts. He repeated the feat against Seattle, blowing fastballs past Jeffrey Leonard, Darnell Coles and Mike Kingery for his 16th save.

With his strikeout streak at six, Harvey, after some ragged stints in June and July, knows this is the type of relief the Angels need if they are to beat the A’s. “This is the way I threw last year,” said Harvey, who was runner-up to Oakland shortstop Walt Weiss in the 1988 AL rookie of the year balloting. “I’m surprised that I have this many saves this year, considering the way I pitched early in the season.”

Harvey said that in the ninth, he “wasn’t trying to strike out the side. I was just trying to get three outs as quickly as possible.”

And get this Angel victory into the books as quickly as possible.

McCaskill has won three consecutive starts, his last two coming against Seattle. And after shutting out the Mariners, 6-0, last week, he extended his scoreless streak against Seattle to 15 innings before his back bothered him in the seventh.

In that inning, Kingery blooped a double down the left-field line and advanced to third base on a passed ball by Schroeder. Kingery scored on a grounder to first base by Jim Presley.

Tony Armas drove in the Angels’ first two runs with a fifth-inning double, his third hit in three at-bats against Mariner starter Brian Holman. This is more trend than news flash for Armas, who has dedicated much of his past two seasons to strafing Seattle pitching.

Now Armas certainly isn’t alone in this preference--see rest of American League--but he’s batting better than .400 against the Mariners since the end of the 1987 season. This year, 11 of his 37 hits have come against Seattle. His first two hits Wednesday were a second-inning double and a fourth-inning single. Then, in the fifth, Armas drove a ball into the left-field corner with two outs and Dick Schofield on third base and Joyner on first.

As the ball bounced past Mariner left fielder Greg Briley, it was touched by a fan, resulting in an interference call by third-base umpire Derryl Cousins. The result: Armas was held at second base, but Schofield and Joyner were both allowed to score. Joyner was rounding third at the time of the interference, prompting Cousins to rule that he would have scored regardless of whether the fan touched the ball or not.

An inning later, the Angels added two more runs on a triple by Devon White--his 11th of the season, giving him the major league lead--and then turned a 4-1 advantage over to the bullpen.

And this time, the bullpen turned it into victory.

Afterward, as Harvey talked about it, he offered, well, a sigh of relief.

“It’s always good when the bullpen does well,” he said. “(The media and fans) have been getting on us a little bit.

“But, you know, our starting pitching has been so good that when we come in and mess one up, it’s going to be noticed.”

Finally, the concept of not messing one up was given equal time Wednesday night.

Angel Notes

With their catching depth depleted by Lance Parrish’s rib injury, the Angels added support from their minor league system Wednesday--but had to go to the double-A level to find some. John Orton, the Angels’ No. 1 draft choice in 1987, was recalled from Midland (Tex.) to serve as backup catcher to Bill Schroeder while Parrish is sidelined. Orton, batting only .233 in 99 games with Midland, was justifiably stunned when he received the word. “I thought they might need a bullpen catcher,” he said, grinning. “It took awhile before it hit me.” So why Orton instead of Doug Davis or Mike Knapp, the catchers currently splitting playing time at triple-A Edmonton? “Our minor league department recommended him as being best suited to fill the role we have here,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “He can catch and throw. He’s the best defensive catcher in the (minor league) organization.” Orton, 23, has also caught more than twice as many games as either Davis or Knapp and has raised his average nearly 50 points since mid-June. In 344 at-bats, Orton had 10 home runs and 53 RBIs.

To open a roster vacancy for Orton, the Angels optioned pitcher Rich Monteleone to Edmonton for the second time this season. In his two stints with the Angels, Monteleone was 2-1 with a 2.45 earned-run average. He appeared in a total of 17 games, pitching mostly in long relief. . . . Rader said some consideration was given to the idea of placing Parrish on the 15-day disabled list, but such a move was determined “not practical. The nature of his injury is such that we don’t know how long he’s going to have to be out. We wouldn’t want to lose him for two weeks if it turns out he’s able to come back in one.” Angel team physician Lewis Yocum said Parrish’s injury, diagnosed as a contusion of the right rib cage, typically takes seven to 10 days to heal. . . . This weekend’s final regular-season meeting between the Angels and the Oakland Athletics could result in a club attendance record. The Angels’ publicity staff reported that more than 45,000 tickets have already been sold for each of the three games. The Angel record for largest attendance for a three-game series at Anaheim Stadium is 146,010, set in 1982 against Kansas City.